LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LIKE CHRIST 



THOUGHTS 

ON THE BLESSED LIFE OF CONFORMITY 
TO THE SON OF GOD 

A Sequel to 'Abide in Christ ' 

BY THE cy^ 
REV. ANDREW MURRAY 

AUTHOR OF 
^ABIDE IN CHRIST,' ' WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER/ ETC 

^ Even as /, ye also.' 







f 



PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTEMUS 

1895 

I 



t>^'^t 




opyrighted 1895, by Henry Altemus* 



The trlBRARY 

&f Congress 

WASttmoTON 

.:i i II 



KBNRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



PREFACE. 



In sending forth this little book on the Image of 
our blessed Lord, and the likeness to Him to which 
we are called, I have only two remarks by way of 
preface. 

The one is that no one can be more conscious than 
myself of the difficulty of the task I have undertaken, 
and its very defective execution. There were two 
things I had to do. The one was to draw such a por- 
trait of the Son of God, as 'in all things made like 
unto His brethren,' as to show how, in the reality of 
His human life, we have indeed an exact Pattern of 
what the Father wants us to be. What was wanted 
was such a portrait as should make likeness to Him 
infinitely and mightily attractive, should rouse desire, 
awaken love, inspire hope, and strengthen faith in all 
who are seeking to imitate Jesus Christ. And then 
I had to sketch another portrait, — that of the believer 
as he really, with some degree of spiritual exactness, 
reflects this Image, and amid the trials and duties of 
daily life proves that likeness to Christ is no mere 
ideal, but through the power of the Holy Ghost a most 
blessed reality. 

How often and how deeply I have felt, after having 



8 PREFACE. 

care of the blessed Lord of whose glory it seeks to 
tell. May He give us to see that there is no beauty 
or blessedness like that of a Christ-like life. May 
He teach us to believe that in union v^ith Him the 
Christ-like life is indeed for us. And as each day 
we listen to what His Word tells us of His image, 
may each one of us have grace to say, '0 my Father! 
even as Thy beloved Son lived in Thee, with Thee, 
for Thee on earth, even so would I also live.' 

A. M. 

P.S. — As the tone of the meditations is mostly 
personal, I have, at the close of the volume, added 
some more general thoughts, 'On Preaching Christ 
as our Example. ' 



^'v 



CONTENTS. 



LIKE CHRIST 



1. Because we abide in Him, 

2. He Himself calls us to it, 

3. As one that seiveth, 

4. Our Head, . 

5. In suffering Wrong, 

6. Crucified with Him, 

7. In His Self- Denial, 

8. In His Self -Sacrifice, 

9. Not of the World, 

10. In His Heavenly Mission, 

11. As the Elect of God, 
13. In doing God's Will, 

13. In His Compassion, 

14. In His Oneness with the Father, 

15. In His Dependence on the Father, 

16. In His Love, .... 

17. In His Praying, .... 

18. In His Use of Scripture, 



PAGE 

11 

18 

25 

32 

41 

49 

59 

66 

74 

82 

89 

96 

104 

113 

119 

127 

133 

142 



10 



CONTENTS. 



19. In forgiving, 

20. In beholding Him, .... 

21. In His Humility, . , . . 

22. In the Likeness of His Death, . 

23. In the Likeness of His Resurrection, 

24. Being made conformable to His Death, 

25. Giving His Life for Men, . 

26. In His Meekness, 

27. Abiding in the Love of God, 

28. Led by the Spirit, 

29. In His Life through the Father, 

30. In glorifying the Father, . 

31. In His Glory, . 

On preaching Christ our Example, 



PAGE 

150 
157 

167 
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205 
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220 
229 
237 
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258 

265 



FIRST DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST: 

BECAUSE WE ABIDE IN HIM. 

*He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so 
to walk, even as He walked. '—1 John ii. 6. 

yj BIDING in Christ and ivalhvng lihe Clirist: 
"^^ these are the two blessings of the new life 
which are here set before us in their essential unity. 
The fruit of a life m Christ is a life li?ce Christ. 

To the first of these expressions, aUding in Christy 
we are no strangers. The wondrous parable of the 
Vine and the branches, with the accompanying com- 
mand, 'Abide in me, and I in you,' has often been 
to us a source of rich instruction and comfort. And 
though we feel as if we had but very imperfectly 
learned the lesson of abiding in Him, yet we have 
tasted something of the joy that comes when the soul 
can say: Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou 
knowest that I do abide in Thee. And He knows 
too how often the fervent prayer still arises: Blessed 
Lord, do grant me the complete unbroken abiding. 

The second expression, walking lihe Qhrist, is not 
less significant than the first. It is the promise of 

11 



13 LIKE CHRIST: 

the wonderful power which the abiding in Him will 
exert. As the fruit of our surrender to live wholly 
in Him, His life works so mightily in us, that our 
walk, the outward expression of the inner life, become 
like His. The two are inseparably connected. The 
abiding in always precedes the walking like Him. 
And yet the aim to walk like Him must equally pre- 
cede any large measure of abiding. Only then is the 
need for a close union fully realized, or is the 
Heavenly Giver free to bestow the fulness of His 
grace, because He sees that the soul is prepared to 
use it according to His design. When the Saviour 
said, 'If ye keep my commandments, j^e shall abide 
in my love,' He meant just this: the surrender to 
walk like me is the path to the full abiding in me. 
Many a one will discover that just here is the secret 
of his failure in abiding in Christ; he did not seek 
it with the view of walking like Christ. The words 
of St. John invite us to look at the two truths in 
their vital connection and dependence on each other. 
The first lesson they teach is: He that seeks to 
abide in Christ must ivalh even as He ivalked. Wo 
all know that it is a matter of course that a branch 
bears fruit of the same sort as the vine to which it 
belongs. The life of the vine and the branch is so 
completely identical, that the manifestation of that 
life must be identical too. When the Lord Jesus re- 
deemed us with His blood, and presented us to the 



BECAUSE WE ABIDE IN HIM. 13 

J^^ather in His righteousness, He did not leave ns in 
our old nature to serve God as best we could. Xo; 
in Him dwelt the eternal life, the holy divine life of 
heaven, and every one who is in Him receives from 
Him that same eternal life in its holy heavenly power. 
Hence nothing can be more natural than the claim 
that he that abides in Him, continually receiving 
life from Him, must aJso 50 walk even as He walked. 
This mighty life of God in the soul does not, how- 
ever, work as a blind force, compelling us ignorantly 
or involuntarily to act like Christ. On the contrary, 
the walking like Him must come as the result of a 
deliberate choice, sought in strong desire, accepted 
of a living will. With this view, the Father in 
heaven showed, us in Jesus' earthly life what the life 
of heaven w^ould be when it came down into the con- 
ditions and circumstances of our human life. And 
with the same object the Lord Jesus, when we receive 
the new life from Him, and when He calls us to abide 
in Him that we may receive that life more abun- 
dantly, ever points us to His own life on earth, and 
tells us that it is to walk even as He walked that the 
new life has been bestowed. 'Even as I, so ye also:' 
that word of the Master takes His whole earthly life, 
and very simply makes it the rule and guide of all 
our conduct. If we abide in Jesus, we may not act 
other. ..se than He did. 'Like Christ' gives in one 
short all-inclusive word the blessed law of the Chris- 



14 LIKE CHRIST: 

tian life. He is to think, to speak, to act as Jesus 
did ; as Jesus was, even so is he to be. 

The second lesson is the complement of the first : 
He that seeks to walk like Christ, must abide in Him, 

There is a twofold need of this lesson. With some 
there is the earnest desire and effort to follow Christ's 
example, without any sense of the impossibility of 
doing so, except by deep, real abiding in Him. They 
fail because they seek to obey the, high command to 
live like Christ, without the only power that can do 
so — the living in Christ. With others there is the 
opposite error; they know their own weakness, and 
count the walking like Christ an impossibility. As 
much as those who seek to do it and who fail, do those 
who do not seek because they expect to fail, need 
the lesson we are enforcing. To walk like Christ one 
must abide in Him; he that abides in Him has the 
power to walk like Him; not indeed in himself or his 
own efforts, but in Jesus, who perfects His strength 
in our weakness. It is just when I feel my utter im- 
potence most deeply, and fully accept Jesus in His 
wondrous union to myself as my life, that His power 
works in me, and I am able to lead a life completely 
beyond what my power could obtain. I begin to see 
that abiding in Him is not a matter of moments or 
special seasons, but the deep life process in which, by 
His keeping grace, I continue without a moment's 
intermission, and from which I act out all my Chris- 



BECAUSE WE ABIDE IN HIM. 15 

tian life. And I feel emboldened really to take Him 
in everything as my example, because I am sure that 
the hidden inner union and likeness must work itself 
out into a visible likeness in walk and conduct, 
f Dear reader! if God give us grace, in the course of 
our meditations, truly to enter into the meaning of 
these His words, and what they teach of a life in 
very deed like Christ's, we shall more than once come 
into the presence of heights and depths that will 
make us cry out. How can these things be? If the 
Holy Spirit reveal to us the heavenly perfection of 
the humanity of our Lord as the image of the unseen 
God, and speaks to us, 'so^ even so ought ye also to 
walk,' the first effect will be that we shall begin to 
feel at what a distance we are from Him. We shall 
be ready to give up hope, and to say with so many. 
It avails not to attempt it: I never can walk like 
Jesus. At such moment we shall find our strength 
in the message He that ahidetli in Him, he must, he 
can, also so walk even as He walked. The word of 
the Master will come with new meaning as the assur- 
ance of strength sufficient: He that abideth in me 
bearetli much fruit. 

Therefore, brother, abide in Him! Every believer 
is in Christ; but not every one abides in Him, in the 
consciously joyful and trustful surrender of the whole 
being to His influence. You know what abiding in 
Him is. It is to consent with our whole soul to His 



16 LIKE CHRIST: 

being our life, to reckon upon Him to inspire us in 
all that goes to make up life, and then to give up 
everything most absolutely for Him to rule and work 
in us. It is the rest of the full assurance that He 
does, each moment, work in us what we are to be, 
and so Himself enables us to maintain that perfect 
surrender, in which He is free to do all His will. Let 
all who do indeed long to walk like Christ take cour- 
age at the thought of what He is and will prove 
Himself to be if they trust Him. He is the True 
Vine; no vine ever did so fully for its branches what 
He will do for us. We have only to consent to be 
branches. Honour Him by a joyful trust that He is, 
beyond all conception, the True Vine^ holding you 
by His almighty strength, supplying you from His 
infinite fulness. And as your faith thus looks to 
Him, instead of sighing and failure, the Voice of 
praise will be heard repeating the language of faith : 
Thanks be to God ! he that abideth in Him does walk 
even as He walked. Thanks be to God! I abide in 
Him, and I walk as He walked. Yes, thanks be to 
God! in the blessed life of God's redeemed these two 
are inseparably one: abiding in Christ and walking 
like Christ. 

Blessed Saviour! Thou knowest how often I have 
said to Thee, Lord, I do abide in Thee! And yet I 
sometimes feel that the full joy and power of life in 



BECAUSE WE ABIDE IN HIM. 17 

Thee is wanting. Thy word this day has reminded 
me of what may be the reason of failure. I sought 
to abide in Thee more for my own comfort and 
growth than Thy glory. I did not apprehend fully 
how the hidden union with Thee had for its object 
perfect conformity to Thee, and how only he who 
wholly yields himself to serve and obey the Father as 
completely as Thou didst, can fully receive all that the 
heavenly love can do for him. I now see something 
of it: the entire surrender to live and work like Thee 
must precede the full experience of the wondrous 
power of Thy life. 

Lord, I thank Thee for the discovery. With my 
whole heart I would accept Thy calling, and yield 
myself in everything to walk even as Thou didst walk. 
To be Thy faithful follower in all Thou wert and 
didst on earth, be the one desire of my heart. 

Blessed Lord ! he that truly yields himself to walk as 
Thou didst walk, will receive grace wholly to abide in 
Thee. my Lord ! here I am. To ivalk like Christ ! 
for this I do indeed consecrate myself to Thee. 
To abide in Christ! for this I trust in Thee with full 
assurance of faith. Perfect in me Thine own work. 

And let Thy Holy Spirit help me, my Lord ! each 
time I meditate on what it is to walk like Thee, to 
hold fast the blessed truth: as one who abides in 
Christy I have the strength to walk like Christ. 
Amen. 

2 



18 LIKE CHRIST: 



SECOND DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST: 

HE HIMSELF CALLS US TO IT. 

'I have given you an example, that ye also should do 
even as /have done to you.' — John xiii. 15. 

IT is Jesus Christ, the beloved Eedeemer of our 
souls, who speaks thus. He had just, humbling 
Himself to do the work of the slave, washed His dis- 
ciples' feet. In doing so His love had rendered to 
the body the service of which it stood in need at the 
supper table. At the same time He had shown, in a 
striking symbol, what He had done for their souls in 
cleansing them from sin. In this twofold work of love 
He had thus set before them, just before parting, in 
one significant act, the whole work of His life as a 
ministry of blessing to body and to soul. And as He 
sits down He says: ' / have given you an example that 
YE ALSO should do EVEN AS I have done to you.'' All 
that they had seen in Him, and experienced from 
Him, is thus made the rule of their life: ' Eyex as I 
have done, do ye also. ' 

The word of the blessed Saviour is for us too. To 
each one who knows that the Lord has washed away 



HE HIMSELF CALLS US TO IT. 19 

his sin the command comes with all the touching 
force of one of the last words of Him who is going 
out to die for us: 'Even as I have done to you, so 
DO YE ALSO.' Jesus Christ does indeed ask every one 
of us in everything to act just as we have seen Him 
do. What He has done to ourselves, and still does 
each day, we are to do over again to others. In His 
condescending, pardoning, saving love, He is our ex- 
ample ; each of us is to be the copy and image of the 
Master. 

The thought comes at once: Alas! how little have 
I lived thus; how little have I even known that I 
was expected thus to live ! And yet, He is my Lord ; 
He loves me, and I love Him ; I dare not entertain 
the thought of living otherwise than He would have 
me. What can I do but open my heart to His word^ 
and fix my gaze on His example, until it exercises its 
divine power upon me, and draws me with irresistible 
force to cry: Lord, even as Thou hast done, so will I 
do also. 

The power of an example depends chiefly on two 
things. The one is the attractiveness of what it gives 
us to see, the other the personal relation and influence 
of him in whom it is seen. In both aspects, what 
power there is in our Lord's example! 

Or, is there really anything very attractive in our 
Lord's example? I ask it in all earnest, because, to 
judge by the conduct of many of His disciples, it 



20 LIKE CHRIST: 

would really seem as if it were not so. that the 
Spirit of God would open our eyes to see the heavenly 
beauty of the likeness of the only-begotten Son ! 

We know who the Lord Jesus is. He is the Son 
of the all-glorious God. one with the Father in nature 
and glory and perfection. When H"e had been on 
earth it could be said of Him, 'We show you that 
eternal life which was with the Father, and was mani- 
fested unto us. ' In Him we see God. In Him we 
see how God would act were He here in our place on 
earth. In Him all that is beautiful and lovely and 
perfect in the heavenly world is revealed to us in the 
form of an earthly life. If we want to see what is 
really counted noble and glorious in the heavenly . 
world, if we would see what is really Divine, we have 
only to look at Jesus; in all He does the glory of 
God is shown forth. 

But oh, the blindness of God's children : this heav- 
enly beauty has to many of them no attraction; there 
is no form or comeliness that they should desire it. 

The manners and the way of living in the court of 
an earthly king exercise influence throughout the 
empire. The example it gives is imitated by all who 
belong to the nobility or the higher classes. But the 
example of the King of heaven, who came and dwelt 
in the flesh, that we might see how we might here on 
earth live a God-like life, alas! with how few of His 
followers does it really find imitation. When we 



HE HIMSELF CALLS US TO IT. 21 

look upon Jesus, His obedience to the will of the 
Father, His humiliation to be a servant of the most 
unworthy, His love as manifested in the entire giving 
up and sacrifice of Himself, we see the most wondrous 
and glorious thing heaven has to show; in heaven 
itself we shall see nothing greater or brighter. Surely 
such an example, given of God on very purpose to 
make the imitation attractive and possible, ought to 
win us. Is it not enough to stir all that is within us 
with a holy jealousy and with joy unutterable as we 
hear the message, 'I have given you an example, that 
even as I have done, ye should also do '? 

This is not all. The power of an example consists 
not only in its own intrinsic excellence, but also in 
the personal relation to him who gives it. Jesus had 
not washed the feet of others in presence of His dis- 
ciples; it was when He had washed their feet that He 
said: 'Even as I have done to you^ ye should also 
do. ' It is the consciousness of a personal relation- 
ship to Christ that enforces the command: Do as I 
have done. It is the experience of what Jesus has 
done to me that is the strength in which I can go 
and do the same to others. He does not ask that I 
shall do more than has been done to me. But not 
less either: Evek as I have done to you. He does 
not ask that I shall humble m^^self as servant deeper 
than He has done. It would not have been strange 
if He had asked this of such a worm. But this is 



22 LIKE CHRIST: 

not His wish : He only demands that I shall just do 
and be what He, the King, has done and been. He 
humbled Himself as low as humiliation could go, to 
love and to bless me. He counted this His Mgliest 
honour and blessedness. And now He invites me to 
partake of the same honour and blessedness, in loving 
and serving as He did. Truly, if I indeed know the 
love that rests on me, and the humiliation through 
which alone that love could reach me, and the power 
of the cleansing which has washed me, nothing can 
keep me back from saying: 'Yes, blessed Lord, even 
as Thou hast done to me, I will also do. ' The heav- 
enly loveliness of the great Example, and the Divine 
lovingness of the great Exemplar, combine to make 
the example above everything attractive. 

Only there is one thing I must not forget. It is 
not the remembrance of what Jesus has once done to 
me, but the living experience of what He is now to 
me, that will give me the power to act like Him. 
His love must be a present reality, the inflowing of a 
life and a power in which I can love like Him. It is 
only as by the Holy Spirit I realize what Jesus is 
doing for me, and how He does it, and that it is He 
who does it, that it is possible for me to do to others 
what He is doing to me. 

'EvEi^ AS I have done to you, do ye also!' What 
a precious word ! What a glorious prospect! Jesus 
is going to show forth in me the Divine power of His 



HE HIMSELF CALLS US TO IT. 23 

love, that I ma}^ show it forth to others. He blesses 
me, that I may bless others. He loves me that I 
may love others. He becomes servant to me that I 
may become a servant to others. He saves and 
cleanses me that I may save and cleanse others. He 
gives Himself wholly for and to me, that I may wholly 
give myself for and to others. I have only to be 
doing over to others what He is doing to me — noth- 
ing more. I can do it, just because He is doing it to 
me. What I do is nothing but the repeating, the 
showing forth of what I am receiving from Him.* 

"Wondrous grace! what thus calls us to be like our 
Lord in that which constitutes His highest glory. 
Wondrous grace! which fits us for this calling by 
Himself first being to us and in us what we are to be 
to others. Shall not our whole heart joyously respond 
to His command ? Yes, blessed Lord ! even as Thou 
doest to me will I also do to others. 

Gracious Lord ! what can I now do but praise and 
pray? My heart feels overwhelmed with this won- 
drous offer, that Thou wilt reveal all Thy love and 
power in me, if I will yield myself to let it flow 
through me to others. Though with fear and trem- 
bling, yet in deep and grateful adoration, with joy 

*How beautifully the principle is expressed in the words 
of Moses to Hobab (Num. x. 32) , ' And it shall be, if thou 
go with us, yea, if thou go with us, that what goodness the 
Lord shall do unto us, the same will 2ve do unto thee ' 1 



24 LIKE CHRIST: 

and confidence, I would accept the offer and say: 
Here I am; show me how much Thou lovest me, and 
I will show it to others by loving them even so. 

And that I may be able to do this, blessed Lord, 
grant me these two things. Grant me, by Thy Holy 
Spirit, a clear insight into Thy love to me, that I 
may know how Thou lovest me, how Thy love to me 
is Thy delight and blessedness, hov/ in that love Thou 
givest Thyself so completely to me, that Thou art in- 
deed mine to do for me all I need. Grant this, Lord, 
and I shall know how to love and how to live for 
others, even as Thou lovest and livest for me. 

And then grant me to see, as often as I feel how 
little love I have, that it is not with the love of my 
little heart, but with Thy love shed abroad in me, 
that I have to fulfil the command of loving like Thee. 
Am I not Thy branch, my heavenly Vine? it is the 
fulness of Thy life and love that flows through me in 
love and blessing to those around. It is Thy Spirit 
that, at the same moment, reveals what Thou art to 
me, and strengthens me for what I am to be to others 
in Thy name. In this faith I dare to say. Amen, 
Lord, even as Thou doest to me, I also do. Yea, 
Amen. 



AS ONE THAT SERVETH. 25 



THIRD DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST: 

AS ONE THAT SERVETH. 

*If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, 
ye also ought to wash one another's feet. ' — John xiii. 14. 
' I am among you as he that serveth. ' — Luke xxii. 27. 

YESTERDAY we thought of the right that the 
Lord has to demand and expect that His re- 
deemed ones should follow His example. To-day we 
will more specially consider in what it is we have to 
follow Him. 

*Ye also ought to wash one another's feet,' is the 
word of which we want to understand the full mean- 
ing. The form of a servant in which we see Him, 
the cleansing which was the object of that service, 
the love which was its motive power, — these are the 
three chief thoughts. 

First, the form of a servant. All was ready for the 
last supper, to the very water to wash the feet of the 
guests, according to custom. But there was no slave 
to do the work. Each one waits for the other: none 
of the twelve thinks of humbling himself to do the 
work. Even at the table they were full of the 



26 LIKE CHRIST: 

thought, who should be greatest in the kingdom they 
were expecting {Luke xxii. 26^ 27). All at once 
Jesus rises (they were still reclining at the table), 
lays aside His garments, girds Himself with a towel, 
and begins to wash their feet. wondrous spectacle ! 
on which angels gazed with adoring wonder. Christ, 
the Creator and King of the universe, at whose beck 
legions of angels are ready to serve Him, who might 
with one word of love have said which one of the 
twelve must do the work, — Christ chooses the slave's 
place for His own, takes the soiled feet in His own 
holy hands, and washes them. He does it in full 
consciousness of His divine glory, for John says, 
'Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things 
into His hands, and that He was come from God and 
went to God, rose.' For the hands into which God 
had given all things, nothing is common or unclean. 
The meanness of a work never lowers the person; the 
person honours and elevates the work, and imparts 
his own worth even to the meanest service. In such 
deep humiliation, as we men call it, our Lord finds 
divine glory, and is in this the Leader of His Church 
in the path of true blessedness. It is as the Son that 
He is the servant. Just because He is the beloved of 
His Father, in whose hands all things are given, it is 
not difficult for Him to stoop so low. In thus taking 
the form of a servant, Jesus proclaims the law of rank 
in the Church of Christ. The higher one wishes to 



AS ONE THAT SERVETH. 27 

stand in grace, the more it must be his joy to be ser- 
vant of all. 'Whosoever will be chief among you, 
let him be your servant' {Matt, xx. 27); 'He that is 
greatest among you shall be your servant' {Matt, 
xxiii, 11). The higher I rise in the consciousness of 
being like Christ, God's beloved child, the deeper 
shall I stoop to serve all around me. 

A servant is one who is always caring for the work 
and interest of his master, is ever ready to let his 
master see that he only seeks to do what will please or 
profit him. Thus Jesus lived : 'For even the Son of 
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give His life a ransom for many' {Marh x. J^o); 
*I am among you as he that serveth.' Thus I must 
live, moving about among God's children as the ser- 
vant of all. If I seek to bless others, it must be in 
the humble, loving readiness with which I serve 
them, not caring for my own honour or interest, if I 
can but be a blessing to them. I must follow Christ's 
example in washing the disciples' feet. A servant 
counts it no humiliation, and is not ashamed of being 
counted an inferior: it is his place and work to serve 
others. The reason why we so often do not bless 
others is that we wish to address them as their su- 
periors in grace or gifts, or at least their equals. If 
we first learnt from our Lord to associate with others 
in the blessed spirit of a servant, what a blessing we 
should become to the world ! AVhen once this example 



28 LIKE CHRIST: 

is admitted to the place it ought to have in the 
Church of Christ, the power of His presence would 
soon make itself felt. 

And what is now the work the disciple has to per- 
form in this spirit of lowly service? The foot-wash- 
ing speaks of a double work — the one for the cleansing 
and refreshing of the body; the other the cleansing 
and saving of the soul. During the whole of our 
Lord's life upon earth these two things were ever 
united: 'The sick were healed, to the poor the gospel 
was preached.' As with the paralytic, so with many 
others, blessing to the body was the type and promise 
of life to the spirit. 

The follower of Jesus may not lose sight of this 
when he receives the command, 'Ye ought also to 
wash one another's feet.' Eemembering that the ex- 
ternal and bodily is the gate to the inner and spiritual 
life, he makes the salvation of the soul the first object 
in his holy ministry of love, at the same time, how- 
ever, seeking the way to the hearts by the ready ser- 
vice of love in the little and common things of daily 
life. It is not by reproof and censure that he shows 
that he is a servant; no, but by the friendliness and 
kindliness with which he proves in daily intercourse 
that he always thinks how he can help or serve, he 
becomes the living witness of what it is to be a fol- 
lower of Jesus. From such a one the word when 
spoken comes with power, and finds easy entrance. 
And then, when he comes into contact with the sin 



AS ONE THAT SERVETH. 29 

and perverseness and contradiction of men, instead 
of being discouraged, he perseveres as he thinks with 
how much patience Jesus has borne with him, and 
still daily cleanses him; he realizes himself to be one 
of God's appointed servants, to stoop to the lowest 
depth to serve and save men, even to bow at the feet 
of others if this be needed. 

The spirit which will enable one to live such a life 
of loving service, can be learned from Jesus alone. 
John writes, * Having loved His own which were in 
the world. He loved them to the end' {John xiii, 1). 
For love nothing is too hard. Love never speaks of 
sacrifice. To bless the loved one, however un- 
worthy, it willingly gives up all. It was love made 
Jesus a servant. It is love alone will make the ser- 
vant's place and work such blessedness to us, that we 
shall persevere in it at all costs. We may perhaps, 
like Jesus, have to wash the feet of some Judas who 
rewards us with ingratitude and betrayal. We shall 
probably meet many a Peter, who first, with his 
^ Never my feet,' refuses, and then is dissatisfied when 
we do not comply with his impatient 'Not only the 
feet, but also the head and the hands.' Only love, 
a heavenly unquenchable love, gives the patience, 
the courage, and the wisdom for this great work the 
Lord has set before us in His holy example: 'Wash 
ye one another's feet.' 

Try above all to understand that it is only as a son 
you can be truly a servant. It was as the Son Christ 



30 LIKE CHRIST: 

took the form of a servant: in this you will find the 
secret of willing, happy service. Walk among men 
as a Son of the Most High God. A Son of God is 
only in the world to show forth His Father's glory, 
to prove how God-like and how blessed it is to live 
only and at any cost to find a way for love to the 
hearts of the lost. 

my soul, thy love cannot attain to this; there- 
fore listen to Him who says, 'Abide in my love, ' Our 
one desire must be that He may sliow us how He 
loves us, and that He Himself may keep us abiding 
in 'His love.'' Live every day, as the beloved of the 
Lord, in the experience that His love washes and 
cleanses, bears and blesses you all the day long. This 
love of His flowing into you, will flow out again from 
you, and make it your greatest joy to follow His ex- 
ample in washing the feet of others. Do not com- 
plain much of the want of love and humility in 
others, but pray much that the Lord would awaken 
His people to their calling, truly so to follow in His 
footsteps that the world may see that they have taken 
Him for their example. And if you do not see it as 
soon as you wish in those around you, let it only urge 
you to more earnest prayer, that in you at least the 
Lord may have one who understands and proves that 
to love and serve like Jesus is the highest blessedness 
and joy, as well as the way, like Jesus, to be a bless- 
ing and a joy to others. 



AS ONE THAT SERVETH, 31 

My Lord, I give myself to Thee, to live this blessed 
life of service. In Thee I have seen it, the spirit of 
a servant is a kingly spirit, come from heaven and 
lifting up to heaven, yea, the Spirit of God's own 
Son. Thou everlasting Love, dwell in me, and my 
life shall be like Thine, and the language of my life 
to others as Thine, *I am in the midst of you as he 
that serveth. ' 

Thou glorified Son of God, Thou knowest how 
little of Thy Spirit dwells in us, how this life of a 
servant is opposed to all that the world reckons honor- 
able or proper. But Thou hast come to teach us new 
lessons of what is right, to show us what is thought 
in heaven of the glory of being the least, of the 
blessedness of serving. Thou, who dost not only 
give new thoughts but implant new feelings, give me 
a heart like Thine, a heart full of the Holy Spirit, a 
heart that can love as Thou dost. Lord, Thy Holy 
Spirit dwells within me; Thy fulness is my inherit 
tance; in the joy of the Holy Spirit I can be as Thoi> 
art. I do yield myself to a life of service like Thine, 
Let the same mind be in me which was also in Thee, 
when Thou didst make Thyself of no reputation, ana 
didst take upon Thee the form of a servant, and 
being found in fashion as a man, didst humble Thy- 
self. Yea, Lord, that very same mind be in me too 
by Thy grace. As a son of God let me be the servant 
of men. Amen. 



33 LIKE CHRIST: 



FOURTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST: 

OUR HEAD. 

* For even hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also 
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should fol- 
low His steps : who His own self bare our sins in His own 
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live 
unto righteousness. ' — 1 Pet. ii. 21. 

THE call to follow Christ's example, and to walk in 
His footsteps, is so high that there is every 
reason to ask with wonder. How can it be expected 
of sinful men that they should walk like the Son of 
God? The answer that most people give is practi- 
cally, that it cannot really be expected : the command 
sets before ns an ideal, beautiful but unattainable.* 

The answer Scripture gives is different. It points 
us to the wonderful relationship in which we stand to 
Christ. Because our union to Him sets in operation 
within us a heavenly life with all its powers, therefore 
the claim may be made in downright earnest that we 
should live as Christ did. The realization of thi 
relationship between Christ and His people is nect 

* See note. 



OUR HEAD, 33 

sary for every one who is in earnest in following 
Christ's example. 

And what is now this relationship? It is three- 
fold. Peter speaks in this passage of Christ as our 
Surety y our Example^ and our Head, 

Christ is our Surety. 'Christ suffered for ics^ — 
'Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on 
the tree.' As Surety, Christ suffered and died in our 
stead. He bore our sin, and broke at once its curse 
and power. As Surety, He did what we could not 
do, what we now need not do. 

Christ is also our Example too. In one sense His 
work is unique; in another we have to follow Him in 
it; we must do as He did, live and suffer like Him. 
^Christ suffered for us, leaving us an Example'' that 
we should follow in His footsteps. His suffering as 
my Surety calls me to a suffering like His as my Ex- 
ample. But is this reasonable? In His suffering as 
Surety He had the power of the Divine nature, and 
how can I be expected in the weakness of the flesh to 
suffer as He did? Is there not an impassable gulf 
between these two things which Peter unites so closely, 
the suffering as Surety and the suffering as Example? 
No, there is a blessed third aspect of Christ's work, 
which bridges that gulf, which i& the connecting link 
between Christ as Surety and Christ as Example, which 
makes it possible for us in very deed to take the Surety 
as Example, and live and suffer and die like Him. 
3 



34 LIKE CHRIST: 

Christ is also our HeacL In this His Suretyship 
and His Example have their root and unity. Christ 
is the second Adam. As a believer I am spiritually 
one with Him. In this union He lives in me, and 
imparts to me the power of His finished work, the 
power of His sufEerings and death and resurrection. 
It is on this ground we are taught in Eomans vi. and 
elsewhere that the Christian is indeed dead to sin and 
alive to God. The very life that Christ lives, the life 
that passed through death, and the power of that 
death, work in the believer, so that he is dead, and 
has risen again with Christ. It is this thought Peter 
gives utterance to when he says: ^Who His own self 
bore our sins upon the tree,' not alone that we through 
His death might receive forgiveness, but 'that we, 
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.' 
As we have part in the spiritual death of the first 
Adam, having really died to God in him, so we have 
part in the second Adam, having really died to sin 
in Him, and in Him being made alive again to God. 
Christ is not only our Surety who lived and died for us, 
our Example who showed us how to live and die, but 
also our Head, with whom we are one, in whose death 
we have died, with whose life we now live. This gives 
us the power to follow our Surety as our Example : 
Christ being our Head is the bond that makes the 
believing on the Surety and the following of the Ex- 
ample inseparably one. 



OUR HEAD, 35 

These three are one. The three truths may not be 
Iseparated from each other. And yet this happens 
[but too often. There are some who wish to follow 
Christ's Example without faith in His atonement. 
They seek within themselves the power to live like 
Him : their efforts must be vain. There are others 
who hold fast to the Suretyship but neglect the Ex- 
ample. They believe in redemption through the 
blood of the cross, but neglect the footsteps of Him 
who bore it. Faith in the atonement is indeed the 
foundation of the building, but it is not all. Theirs 
too is a deficient Christianity, with no true view of 
sauctification, because they do not see how, along 
with faith in Christ's atonement, following His Ex- 
ample is indispensably necessary. 

There are still others who have received these two 
truths, — Christ as Surety and Christ as Example, — 
and yet want something. They feel constrained to 
follow Christ as Example in what He did as Surety, 
but want the power. They do not rightly under- 
stand how this following His Example can really be 
attained. What they need is, the clear insight as to 
what Scripture teaches of Christ as Head. Because 
the Surety is not some one outside of me, but One in 
whom I am, and who is in me, therefore it is that I 
can become like Him. His very life lives in me. He 
lives Himself in me, whom He bought with His 
blood. To follow His footsteps is a duty, because it 



36 LIKE CHRIST: 

is a possibility, the natural result of the wonderful 
union between Head and members. It is only when 
this is understood aright that the blessed truth of 
Christ's Example will take its right place. If Jesus 
Himself through His life union will work in me the 
life likeness, then my duty becomes plain, but glori- 
ous. I have, on the one side, to gaze on His Exam- 
ple so as to know and follow it. On the other, to 
abide in Him, and open my heart to the blessed work- 
ings of His life in me. As surely as He conquered 
sin and its curse for me^ will He conquer it in its 
power iji me. What He began by His death for me, 
He will perfect by His life in me. Because my Surety 
is also my Head, His Example must and will be the 
rule of my life. 

There is a saying of Augustine that is often quoted: 
'Lord! give what Thou commandest, and command 
what Thou wilt.' This holds good there. If the 
Lord, who lives in me, gives what He requires of me, 
then no requirement can be too high. Then I have 
the courage to gaze upon His holy Example in all its 
height and breadth, and to accept of it as the law of 
my conduct. It is no longer merely a command tell- 
ing what I must be, but a promise of what I shall be. 
There is nothing that weakens the power of Christ's 
Example so much as the thought that we cannot really 
walk like Him. Do not listen to such thoughts. 
The perfect likeness in heaven is begun on earth, can 



OUR HEAD. 37 

grow with each day, and become more visible as life 
goes on. As certain and mighty as the work of surety 
which Christ, your Head, completed once for all, is 
the renewal after His own Image, which He is still 
working out. Let this double blessing make the 
cross doubly precious : Our Head suffered as a Surety, 
that in union with us He might bear sin for us. 
Our Head suffered as an Example, that He might 
show us what the path is in which, in union with 
Himself, He would lead us to victory and to glory. 
The suffering Christ is our Head, our Surety, and 
our Example. 

And so the great lesson I have to learn is the won- 
derful truth that it is just in that mysterious path of 
suffering, in which He wrought out our atonement 
and redemption, that we are to follow His footsteps, 
and that the full experience of that redemption de- 
pends upon the personal fellowship in that suffering. 
'Christ suffered for us^ leaving us an Example. ' May 
the Holy Spirit reveal to me what this means. 

Precious Saviour ! how shall I thank Thee for the 
work that Thou hast done as Surety? Standing in 
the place of me as guilty Thoti hast borne my sins in 
Thy body on the cross. That cross was my due. 
Thou didst take it, and wast made like unto me, that 
thus the cross might be changed into a place of bless- 
ing and life. 



88 LIKE CHRIST: 

And now Thou callest me to the place of crucifix- 
ion as the place of blessing and life, where I may be 
made like Thee, and may find in Thee power to suffer 
and to cease from sin. As my Head, Thou wert my 
Surety to suffer and die with me; as my Head, Thou 
art my Example that I might suffer and die with 
Thee. 

Precious Saviour! I confess that I have too little 
understood this. Thy Suretyship was more to me 
than Thy Example. I rejoiced much that Thou 
hadst borne the cross for me, but too little that I like 
Thee and with Thee might also bear the cross. The 
atonement of the cross was more precious to me than 
the fellowship of the cross; the hope in Thy redemp- 
tion more precious than the personal fellowship with 
Thyself. 

Forgive me this, dear Lord, and teach me to find 
my happiness in union with Thee, my Head, not 
more in Thy Suretyship than in Thine Example. And 
grant, that in my meditations as to how I am to fol- 
low Thee, my faith may become stronger and brighter: 
Jesus is my Example because He is my life. I must 
and can be like Him, because I am one with Him. 
Grant this, my blessed Lord, for Thy love's sake. 
Amen. 

NOTE. 

*Thomas a Kempis has said, "All men wish to be 
with Christ, and to belong to His people; but few 



OUR HEAD. 39 

are really willing to follow the life of Christ." There 
are many who imagine that to imitate Jesus Christ is 
a specially advanced state in the Christian life, to 
which only a few elect can attain; they think that 
one can be a real Christian if he only confesses his 
weakness and sin, and holds fast to the Word and 
Sacrament, without attaining any real conformity to 
the life of Christ ; they even count it pride and fanat- 
icism if one venture to say that conformity to the like- 
ness of Jesus Christ is an indispensaMe sign of the true 
Christian, And yet our Lord says to all without ex- 
ception: "He that doth not take his cross, and fol- 
low after me, is not worthy of me;" He mentions 
expressly the most difficult thing in His life — the 
cross, that which includes all else. And Peter writes 
not to some, but to the whole Church; Christ hath 
left us an Example that we should follow His foot- 
steps. It is a sad sign that these unmistakable com- 
. mands have been so darkened in our modern Chris- 
tianity, that our leading ministers and church 
members have quietly, as by common consent, agreed 
to rob these words of their sting. A false dogmatic 
must bear no small share of the blame. To defend 
the Divinity of our Saviour against unbelief, men 
have presented and defended His Divine nature with 
such exclusiveness, that it became im^possible to form 
any real living conception of His humanity. It is 
not enough that we admit that Christ was a true 
man; no one can form any idea of this humanity 
who is ever afraid to lose the true Christ, if he does 
not every moment ascribe to Him Divine power and 
omniscience. For, of a truth, if Christ's suffering 
and cross be only and altogether something super- 



40 LIKE CHRIST: 

natural, we must cease to speak of the imitation of 
Christ in any true or real sense of the word. Oh, 
the gulf of separation which comes between the life 
of Christ and the life of Christians, when the rela- 
tion between them is only an external one! And 
how slow and slothful the Church of our days is to 
apply the great and distinct rule so clearly laid down 
in the life of Christ, to the filling of these gulfs and 
the correcting of the disorders of our modern life. The 
Church of Christ will not be brought again out of its 
confusions until the faithful actual imitation of her 
Lord and Head again iecome tlie banner round ivhich 
she rallies His disciples.'^ — From M. Diemer, Een 
nieutv hoeh over de navolging van Jesus Christus (A 
new book on the imitation of Jesus Christ). 



IN SUFFERING WRONG. 41 



FIFTH DAY. 



LIKE CHKIST: 

IN SUFFERING WRONG. 

* For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward 
God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is 
if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it pa- 
tiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take 
it patiently, this is acceptable with God.' — 1 Pet. ii. 19, 
20. 

IT is in connection with a very everyday matter that 
Peter gave utterance to those weighty words con- 
cerning Christ as our Surety and Example. He is 
writing to servants, who at that time were mostly 
slaves. He teaches them ' to be subject with all fear, 
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro- 
ward.' For, so he writes, if any one do wrong and 
be punished for it, to bear it patiently is no special 
grace. No; but if one do well, and suffer for it, and 
take it patiently, this is acceptable with God; such 
bearing of wrong is Christ-like. In bearing our sins 
as Surety, Christ suffered wrong from man; after 
His example we must be ready to suffer wrongfully 
too. 



42 LIKE CHRIST: 

There is almost nothing harder to bear than injus- 
tice from our fellow-men. It is not only the loss of 
pain; there is the feeling of humiliation and injus- 
tice, and the consciousness of our rights asserts itself. 
In what our fellow-creatures do to us, it is not easy at 
once to recognise the will of God, who thus allows us 
to be tried, to see if we have truly taken Christ as our 
example. Let us study that example. From Him 
we may learn what it was that gave Him the power 
to bear injuries patiently. 

Christ ielieved in suffering as tlie tvill of God, He 
had found it in Scripture that the servant of God 
should suffer. He had made Himself familiar with 
the thought, so that when suffering came, it did not 
take Him by surprise. He expected it. He knew 
that thus He must be perfected; and so His first 
thought was not how to be delivered from it, but 
how to glorify God in it. This enabled Him to bear 
the greatest injustice quietly. He saw God's hand 
in it. 

Christian! would you have strength to suffer 
wrong in the spirit in which Christ did? Accustom 
yourself in everything that happens, to recognise the 
hand and will of God. This lesson is of more conse- 
quence than you think. Whether it be some great - 
wrong that is done you, or some little offence that 
you meet in daily life, before you fix your thoughts 
on the person who did it, first be still, and remem- 



IN SUFFERING WRONG. 43 

ber, God allows me to come into this trouble to see if 
I shall glorify Him in it. This trial, be it the great- 
est or least, is allowed by God, and is His will con- 
cerning me. Let me first recognise and submit to 
Gocfs tuill in it. Then in the rest of soul which this 
gives, I shall receive wisdom to know how to behave 
in it. With my eye turned from man to God, suf- 
fering wrong is not so hard as it seems. 

Christ also believed that God would care for His 
rights and honour. There is an innate sense of right 
within us that comes from God. But he who lives 
in the visible, wants his honour to be vindicated at 
once here below. He who lives in the eternal, and 
as seeing the Invisible, is satisfied to leave the vindi- 
cation of his rights and honour in God's hands; he 
knows that they are safe with Him. It was thus with 
the Lord Jesus. Peter writes, ' He committed Him- 
self to Him that judgeth righteously.' It was a set- 
tled thing between the Father and the Son, that the 
Son was not to care for His own honour, but only 
for the Father's. The Father would care for the 
Son's honour. Let the Christian just follow Christ's 
example in this, it will give him such rest and peace. 
Give your right and your honour into God's keeping. 
Meet every offence that man commits against yon 
with the firm trust that God will watch over and care 
for you. Commit it to Him who judgeth righteously. 

Further, Christ believed in the power of suffering 



44 LIKE CHRIST: 

love. We all admit that there is no power like that 
of love. Through it Christ overcomes the enmity of 
the world. Every other victory gives only a forced 
submission; love alone gives the true victory over an 
€nemy, by converting him into a friend. We all 
acknowledge the truth of this as a principle, but 
we shrink from the application. Christ believed it, 
and acted accordingly. He said too, I shall have 
my revenge; but His revenge was that of love, bring- 
ing enemies as friends to His feet. He believed that 
by silence and submission, and suffering and bearing 
wrong, He would win the cause, because thus love 
Tvould have its triumph. 

And this is what He desires of us too. In our sin- 
ful nature there is more faith in might and right 
than in the heavenly power of love. But he who 
would be like Christ must follow Him in this also, 
that He seeks to conquer evil with good. TJie more 
miotlier does Mm wrong ^ the more he feels called to love 
Mm. Even if it be needful for the public welfare 
that justice should punish the offender, he takes care 
that there be in it nothing of personal feeling; as 
far as he is concerned, he forgives and loves. 

Ah, what a difference it would make in Christen- 
dom and in our churches, if Christ's example were 
followed! If each one who was reviled, 'reviled 
not again;' if each one who suffered, 'threatened 
aaot, but committed himself to Him, that judgeth 



IN SUFFERING WRONG, 45 

righteously.' Fellow-Christians, this is literally 
what the Father would have us do. Let us read and 
read again the words of Peter, until our soul be filled 
with the thought, 'If, when ye do well, and suffer 
for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with 
God:'' 

In ordinary Christian life, where we mostly seek 
to fulfil our calling as redeemed ones in our own 
strength, such a conformity to the Lord's image is 
an impossibility. But in a life of full surrender, 
where we have given all into His hands, in the faith 
that He will work all in us, there the glorious ex- 
pectation is awakened, that the imitation of Christ in 
this is indeed within our reach. For the command 
to suffer like Christ has come in connection with the 
teaching, ' Christ also suffered for us, so that we, 
being dead to sins, might live unto righteousness.' 

Beloved fellow-Christian! wouldst thou not love 
to be like Jesus, and in bearing injuries act as He 
Himself would have acted in thy place? Is it not a 
glorious prospect in everything, even in this too, to 
be conformed to Him? For our strength it is too 
high; in His strength it is possible. Only surrender 
thyself day by day to Him to be in all things just 
what He would have thee to be. Believe that He 
lives in heaven to be the life and the strength of 
each one who seeks to walk in His footsteps. Yield 
*See note. 



46 LIKE CHRIST: 

thyself to be one with the sufEering, crucified Christ, 
that thou mayest understand what it is to be dead to 
sins, and to live unto righteousness. And it will be 
thy joyful experience what wonderful power there is 
in Jesus' death, not only to atone for sin, but to break 
its power; and in His resurrection, to make thee live 
unto righteousness. Thou shalt find it equally 
Messed to follow fully the footsteps of the sufferiiiy 
Saviour^ as it has been to trust fully and only in 
that suffering for atonement and redemption. Christ 
will be as precious as thy Example as He has ever 
been as thy Surety. Because He took thy sufferings 
upon Himself, thou wilt lovingly take His sufferings 
upon thyself. And bearing wrong will become a 
glorious part of the fellowship with His holy suffer- 
ings; a glorious mark of being conformed to His 
most holy likeness; a most blessed fruit of the true 
life of faith. 

Lord my God, I have heard Thy precious word: 
If any man endure grief, suffering wrongfully, and 
take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. This 
is indeed a sacrifice that is well-pleasing to Thee, a 
work that Thine own grace alone hath wrought, a 
fruit of the suffering of Thy beloved Son, of the ex- 
ample He left, and the power He gives in virtue of 
His having destroyed the power of sin. 

my Father, teach me and all Thy children to aim 



IN SUFFERING WRONG. 47 

at nothing less than complete conformity to Thy dear 
Son in this trait of His blessed image. Lord my 
God, I would now, once for all, give up the keeping 
of my honour and my rights nto Thy hands, never 
more again myself to take charge of them. Thou 
wilt care for them most perfectly. May my only 
care be the honour and the rights of my Lord! 

I specially beseech Thee to fill me with faith in the 
conquering power of suffering love. Give me to ap- 
prehend fully how the suffering Lamb of God teaches 
us that patience and silence and suffering avail more 
with God, and therefore with man too, than might 
or right. my Father, I must, I would walk in the 
footsteps of my Lord Jesus. Let Thy Holy Spirit, 
and the light of Thy love and presence, be my guide 
and strength. Amen. 

NOTE. 

'What is it thou sayest, my son? Cease from 
complaining, when thou considerest my passion, and 
the sufferings of my other saints. Do not say, " To 
suffer this from such a one, it is more than I can or 
may do. He has done me great wrong, and accused 
me of things I never thought of. Of another I might 
bear it, if I thought I deserved it, but not from him !" 
Such thoughts are very foolish ; instead of think- 
ing of patience in suffering, or of Him by whom it 
will be crowned, we only are occupied with the in- 
jury done to us, and the person who has done it. 
No, he deserves not the name of patient wJio is only 



48 LIKE CHRIST: 

willing to suffer as much as he thinks proper^ and from 
whom he pleases. The truly patient man asks not 
from whom he suffers, his superior, his equal, or his 
inferior; whether from a good and holy man, or one 
who is perverse and unworthy. But from whom- 
soever, how much soever, or how often soever wrong 
is done him, he accepts it all as from the hand of 
God, and counts it gain. For with God it is impos- 
sible that anything suffered for His sake should pass 
without its reward. 

'0 Lord, let that become possible to me by Thy 
grace, which by nature seems impossible. Grant 
that the suffering wrong may by Thy love be made 
pleasant to me. To suffer for Thy sake is most 
healthful to my soul.' — From Thomas a Kempis, Of 
the Imitation of Christy iii. 19. That the suffering of 
wrong is the proof of true patience. 



CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. 49 



SIXTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST: 

CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. 

'I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me. God forbid that I should glory- 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by v^hom the 
v^orld is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. ' — Gal. 
ii. 20, vi. 14. 

TAKING up the cross was always spoken of by 
Christ as the test of discipleship. On three 
different occasions {Matt, x, 88., xvL 24; Luke xiv. 
27) we find the words repeated, 'If any man will come 
after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.' 
While the Lord was still on His way to the cross, this 
expression — taking up the cross — was the most appro- 
priate to indicate that conformity to Him to which 
the disciple is called.* But now that He has been 

*See note. Christians entirely miss the point of the 
Lord's command when they refer the taking up of the cross 
only to the crosses or trials of life. It means much more. 
The cross means death. Taking up the cross means going 
out to die. It is just in the time of prosperity that we most 
need to bear the cross. Taking up the cross and following 
Him is nothing less than living every day with our own 
life and will given up to death. 
4 



^0 LIKE CHRIST: 

crucified, the Holy Spirit gives another expression, 
in which our entire conformity to Christ is still more 
powerfully set forth, — the believing disciple is him- 
self crucified with Christ. The cross is the chief 
mark of the Christian as of Christ; the crucified 
Christ and the crucified Christian belong to each 
other. One of the chief elements of likeness to Christ 
consists in being crucified with Him. Whoever wishes 
to be like Him must seek to understand the secret of 
fellowship with His cross. 

At first sight the Christian who seeks conformity to 
Jesus is afraid of this truth; he shrinks from the 
painful suffering and death with which the thought 
of the cross is connected. As his spiritual discern- 
ment becomes clearer, however, this word becomes all 
his hope and joy, and he glories in the cross, because 
it makes him a partner in a death and victory that 
has already been accomplished, and in which the de- 
liverance from the powers of the flesh and of the 
world has been secured to him. To understand this 
we must notice carefully the language of Scripture. 

'I am crucified with Christ,' Paul says; 'neverthe- 
less I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' 
Through faith in Christ we become partakers of 
Christ's life. That life is a life that has passed 
through the death of the cross, and in which the 
poiver of that death is alicays working. When I re- 
ceive that life, I receive at the same time the full 



CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, 51 

power of the death on the cross working in me in its 
never-ceasing energy. 'I have been crucified Avith 
Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ 
liveth in me' {R, F.) ; the life I now live is not my 
own life, but the life of the Crucified One, is the life 
of the cross. The being crucified is a thing past and 
done: 'Knowing this, that our old man was {R, F.) 
crucified with Him;' *They that are Christ's have 
crucified the flesh ;' 'I glory in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world hath been {R. F.) 
crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' These 
texts all speak of something that has been done in 
Christ, and into which I am admitted by faith. 

It is of great consequence to understand this, and 
to give bold utterance to the truth ; I have been cru- 
cified with Christ; I have crucified the flesh. I thus 
learn how perfectly I share in the finished work of 
Christ. If I am crucified and dead with Him, then 
I am a partner in His life and victory. I learn to 
understand the position I must take to allow the 
power of that cross and that death to manifest it- 
self in mortifying or (R. V.) making dead the old 
man and the flesh, in destroying the body of sin 
{Rom, vi, 6), 

For there is still a great work for me to do. But 
that work is not to crucify myself: I have been cru- 
cified; the old man was crucified, so the Scripture 
speaks. But what I have to do is always to regard 



52 LIKE CHRIST: 

and treat it as cracified, and not to suffer it to come 
down from the cross. I must maintain my crucifix- 
ion position. I must keep the flesh in the place of 
crucifixion. To realize the force of this I must notice 
an important distinction. I have been crucified and 
am dead: the old Adam was crucified, but is not yet 
dead. When I gave myself to my crucified Saviour, " 
«in and flesh and all, He took me wholly; I with my 
evil nature was taken up with Him in His crucifixion. 
But here a separation took place. In fellowship with 
Him I was freed from the life of the flesh ; I myself 
died with Him ; in the inmost centre of my being I 
received new life: Christ lives in me. But the fleshy 
in which I yet am, the old man that was crucified 
with Him, remained condemned to an accursed death, 
but is not yet dead. And now it is my calling, in 
fellowship with and in the strength of my Lord, to 
see that the old nature be kept nailed to the cross, 
until the time comes that it is entirely destroyed. 
All its desires and affections cry out, *Come down 
from the cross, save thyself and us.' It is my duty 
to glory in the cross, and with my whole heart to 
maintain the dominion of the cross, and to set my 
seal to the sentence that has been pronounced, to 
make dead every uprising of sin, as already crucified, 
and so not to suffer it to have dominion. This is 
what Scripture means when it says, 'If ye through 
the spirit do make to die (/?. F.) the deeds of the 



^tmrnjammm^ 



CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. 53 

body, ye shall live' {Rom, viii, 13), *Make dead 
therefore your members which areaipon the earth.' 
Thus I continually and voluntarily acknowledge that 
in my flesh dwells no good thing; that my Lord is 
Christ the Crucified One; that I have been crucified 
and am dead in Him ; that the flesh has been crucified 
and, though not yet dead, has been forever given over 
to the death of the cross. And so I live like Christ, 
in very deed crucified wath Him. 

In order to enter fully into the meaning and the 
power of this fellowship of the crucifixion of our Lord, 
two things are specially necessary to those who are 
Christ's followers. The first is the clear conscious- 
ness of this their fellowship with the Crucified One 
through faith. At conversion they became partakers 
of it without fully understanding it. Many remain 
in ignorance all their life long through a want of 
spiritual knowledge. Brother, pray that the Holy 
Spirit may reveal to you your union to the Crucified 
One. ^I have been crucified with Christ;' *I glory 
in the cross of Christ, through which I have been 
crucified to the world.' Take such words of Holy 
Scripture, and by prayer and meditation make them 
your own, with a heart that expects and asks the Holy 
Spirit to make them living and effectual within you. 
Look upon yourself in the light of God as what you 
really are, ^crucified with Christ.' 

Then you will find the grace for the second thing 



54 LIKE CHRIST: 

you need to enable you to live as a crucified one, in 
whom Christ lives. You will be able always to look 
upon and to treat the flesh and the world as nailed to 
the cross. The old nature seeks continually to assert 
itself, and to make you feel as if it is expecting too 
much that you should always live this crucifixion 
life. Your only safety is in fellowship with Christ. 
'Through Him and His cross,' says Paul, *I have been 
crucified to the world.' In Him the crucifixion is an 
accomplished reality; in Him you have died, but also 
have been made alive : Christ lives in you. With this 
fellowship of His cross let it be with you, the deeper 
the better: it brings you into deeper communion with 
His life and His love. To be crucified with Christ 
means freed from the power of sin : a redeemed one, a 
conqueror. Eemember that the Holy Spirit has been 
specially provided to glorify Christ in you, to reveal 
within you, and make your very own, all that is in 
Christ for you. Do not be satisfied, with so many 
others, only to know the cross in its power to atone: 
the glory of the cross is, that it was not only to Jesus, 
but is to us too, the path to life, but that each mo- 
ment it can become to us the power that destroys sin 
and death, and keeps us in the power of the eternal 
life. Learn from your Saviour the holy art of using 
it for this. Faith in the power of the cross and its 
victory will day by day make dead the deeds of the 
body, the lusts of the flesh. This faith will teach 



CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. 55 

you to count the cross, with its continual death to 
self, all your glory. Because you regard the cross, 
not as one who is still on the way to crucifixion, with 
the prospect of a painful death, but as one to whom 
the crucifixion is past, who already lives in Christ, and 
now only bears the cross as the blessed instrument 
through which the body of sin is done away {Ro?7i, 
vi, 6^ R, F.). The banner under which complete 
victory over sin and the world is to be won is the 
cross. 

Above all, remember what still remains the chief 
thing. It is Jesus, the living, loving Saviour, who 
Himself enables you to be like Him in all things. 
His sweet fellowship. His tender love, His heavenly 
power, make it a blessedness and joy to be like Him, 
the Crucified One, make the crucifixion life a life of 
resurrection-joy and power. In Him the two are in- 
separably connected. In Him you have the strength 
to be always singing the triumphant song: God for- 
bid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been 
crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 

Precious Saviour, I humbly ask Thee to show me 
the hidden glory of the fellowship of Thy cross. The 
cross was my place, the place of death and curse. 
Thou didst become like us, and hast been crucified 
with us. And now the cross is Thy place, the place 



.56 LIKE CHRIST: 

f>t blessing and life. And Thou callest me to become 
like Thee, and as one who is crucified with Thee, to 
experience how entirely the cross has made me free 
from sin. 

Lord, give me to know its full power. It is long 
since I knew the power of the cross to redeem from 
the curse. But how long I strove in vain as a re- 
deemed one to overcome the power of sin, and to obey 
the Father as Thou hast done! I could not break the 
power of sin. But now I see, this comes only when 
Thy disciple yields himself entirely to be led by Thy 
Holy Spirit into the fellowship of Thy cross. There 
Thou dost give him to see how the cross has iroTcen 
for ever the power of sin, and has made him free. 
There Thou, the Crucified One, dost live in him and 
impart to him Thine own Spirit of whole-hearted 
self-sacrifice, in casting out and conquering sin. Oh, 
my Lord, teach me to understand this better. In 
this faith I say, *I have been crucified with Christ.' 
Oh, Thou who lovedst me to the death, not Thy cross, 
but Thyself the Crucified One, Thou art He whom I 
seek, and in whom I hope. Take me. Thou Cruci- 
fied One, and hold me fast, and teach me from 
moment to moment to look upon all that is of self a 
condemned, and only worthy to be crucified. Take 
me, and hold me, and teach me, from moment to 
moment, that in Thee I have all I need for a life of 
holiness and blessing. Amen. 



CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, 57 

NOTE. 

* Jesus hath now many lovers of His heavenly king- 
dom, but few bearers of His cross. He hath many 
who desire His consolation, few His tribulation; 
many who are willing to share His table, few His 
fasting. All are willing to rejoice with Him, few 
will endure anything for Him. Many follow Jesus 
into the breaking of bread, but few to drink of the 
cup whereof He drank. Many glory in His miracles, 
few in the shame of His cross.' * 

*To many it seems a hard speech, "Deny thyself, 
take up thy cross, and follow Jesus." Bat it will be 
much harder to hear that other word, " Depart from 
me, ye cursed;" for only they who now hear and fol- 
low the word of the cross shall then have no fear of 
the word of condemnation. For the sign of the cross 
will be seen in the heaven when the Lord cometh to 
judgment, and all the servants of the cross, who in 
their lifetime have been conformed to Christ cruci- 
fied, will then draw near to Christ their judge with 
great confidence. Why, then, dost thou fear to take 
up the cross which fitteth thee for the kingdom? In 
the cross is life, in the cross is salvation ; the cross 
defends against all enemies; in the cross there is the 
infusion of all heavenly sweetness; in the cross is 
strength of mind, joy of spirit; the cross is the height 
of virtue and the perfection of sanctity. There is no 
happiness for the soul but in the cross. Take up, 
therefore, thy cross and follow Jesus, and thou shalt 
live for ever. 

*From Thomas a Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, ii. 
11. That the lovers of the Cross of Jesus are few. 



58 LIKE CHRIST: 

'It thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee. 
If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest for thyself a 
burden which still thou hast to bear. What saint 
was there ever who did not bear the cross? Even 
Christ must needs suffer. How then dost thou seek 
any other way than this, which is the royal way, the 
way of the sacred cross? 

'He that willingly submits to the cross, to him its 
whole burden is changed into a sweet assurance of 
divine comfort. And the more the flesh is broken 
down by the cross, the more the spirit is strengthened 
by inward grace. It is not in man by nature to bear 
the cross, to love the cross, to deny self, to bring the 
body into subjection, and willingly to endure suffer- 
ing. If thou look to thyself, thou canst accomplish 
nothing of all this. But if thou trust in the Lord, 
strength shall be given thee from heaven, and the 
world and the flesh shall be made subject to thy rule. 
Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross of 
thy Lord, who out of love was crucified for thee. 

'Know for certain thou oughtest to lead a dying 
life, for the more any man dieth unto himself the 
more he liveth unto God. Surely, if there had been 
any better thing, and more profitable to man's sal- 
vation, than bearing the cross, Christ would have 
showed it us by word and example. But now He 
calleth all who would follow Him plainly to do this 
one thing, daily to bear the cross.' — From Thomas 
a Kempis. Of the Imitation of Christy ii. 12. Of 
the Royal Way of the Sacred Cross. ' 



IN HIS SELF-DENIAL. 59 



SEVENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN HIS SELF-DENIAL. 

* We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of 
the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us 
please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even 
Christ pleased not Himself, as it is written, The reproaches 
of them that reproached thee fell upon me. Wherefore re- 
ceive ye one another, even as Christ also received us to the 
glory of God. '—ROM. xv. 1-3, 7. 

'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross, and follow me.' — Matt. xvi. 24. 

EVEN" Christ pleased not Himself : He bore the re- 
proaches, with which men reproached and dis- 
honoured God, so patiently, that He might glorify 
God and save man. Christ pleased not Himself : with 
reference both to God and man, this word is the key 
of His life. In this, too. His life is our rule and. 
example; we who are strong ought not to please 
ourselves. 

To deny self — this is the opposite of pleasing self. 
When Peter denied Christ, he said: I know not the 
man ; with Him and His interests I have nothing to- 
do; I do not wish to be counted His friend. In the 



60 LIKE CHRIST: 

same way the true Christian denies himself, the old 
man: I do not know this old man; I will have noth- 
ing to do with him and his interests. And when 
shame and dishonour come upon him, or anything be 
exacted that is not pleasant to the old nature, he 
simply says: Do as you like with the old Adcmi, I 
will take no notice of it. Through the cross of Christ 
I am crucified to the world, and the flesli, and self; 
to the friendship and interest of this old man I am a 
stranger; I deny him to be my friend; I deny his 
every claim and wish; I know him not. 

The Christian who only thinks of his salvation from 
curse and condemnation cannot understand this; he 
finds it impossible to deny self. Although he may 
sometimes try to do so, his life mainly consists in 
pleasing himself. The Christian who has taken 
Christ as his pattern cannot be content with this. 
He has surrendered himself to seek the most com- 
plete fellowship with the cross of Christ. The Holy 
Spirit has taught him to say, 1 have been crucified 
with Christ, and so am dead to sin and self. In fel- 
lowship with Christ he sees the old man crucified, a 
condemned malefactor; he is ashamed to own him as 
a friend : it is his fixed purpose, and he has received 
the power for it too, no longer to please his old 
nature, but to deny it. Because the cmcified Christ 
is his life, self-denial is the laio of his life. 

This self-denial extends itself over the whole do- 



IN HIS SELF-DENIAL. 61 

main of life. It was so with the Lord Jesus, and is 
so with every one who longs to follow Him perfectly. 
This self-denial has not so much to do with what is 
sinful, and unlawful, and contrary to the laws of God, 
as with what is lawful, or apparently indifferent. To 
the self-denying spirit the will and glory of God and 
the salvation of man are always more than our own 
interests or pleasure. 

Before we can know how to please our neighbour, 
self-denial must first exercise itself in our own per- 
sonal life. It must rule the body. The holy fasting 
of Him who said, Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God ; and who would not eat until His Father gave 
Him food, and His Father's work was done, teaches 
the believer a holy temperance in eating and drink- 
ing. The holy poverty of Him who had not where 
to lay His head, teaches him so to regulate the pos- 
session, and use, and enjoyment of earthly things, 
that he may always possess as not possessing. After 
the example of the holy suflEering patiently of Him 
who bore all our sin in His own body on the tree, he 
learns to bear all suffering patiently: even in the 
body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, he desires to 
bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus; with Paul 
he keeps under the body and brings it into subjection ; 
all its desires and appetites he would have ruled by 
the self-denial of Jesus. He does not please himself. 



62 LIKE CHRIST: 

This self-denial keeps watch over the spirit too. 
His own wisdom and judgment the believer brings 
into subjection to God's word; he gives up his own 
thoughts to the teaching of the Word and the Spirit. 
Towards man he manifests the same self-denial of his 
own wisdom in a readiness to hear and learn, in the 
meekness and humility with which, even when he 
knows he is in the right, he gives his opinion, in the 
desire ever to find and to acknowledge what is good 
in others. 

And then self-denial has special reference to the 
heart. All the affections and desires are placed under 
it. The will, the kingly power of the soul, is specially 
under its control. As little as self-pleasing could be 
a part of Christ's life, may Christ's follower allow it 
ever to influence his conduct. 'We ought not to please 
ourselves. For even Christ pleased not Himself.' 
Self-denial is the law of his life. 

Nor does he find it hard when once he has truly 
surrendered himself to it. To one who, with a 
divided heart, seeks to force himself to a life of self- 
denial, it is hard indeed; but to one who has yielded 
himself to it unreservedly, because he has with his 
whole heart accepted the cross to destroy the power of 
sin and self, the blessing it brings more 'than compen- 
sates for apparent sacrifice or loss. He hardly dare 
any longer speak of self-denial, there is such blessed- 
ness in becoming conformed to the image of Jesus. 



IN HIS SELF-DENIAL. 63 

Self-denial has not its value with God, as some 
think, from the measure of pain it causes. No, for 
this pain is very much caused by the remaining reluc- 
tance to practise it. But it has its highest worth in. 
, that meek or even joyful acquiescence which counts 
nothing a sacrifice for Jesus' sake, and feels surprised 
when others speak of self-denial. 

There have been ages when men thought they must 
fly to the wilderness or cloister to deny themselves. 
The Lord Jesus has shown us that the best place to 
practise self-denial is in our ordinary intercourse with 
men. So Paul also says here, 'We otight not to please 
ourselves^ let every one please his neighbour u?ito edifi- 
cation. For even Christ pleased not Himself. There- 
fore receive ye one another, even as Christ has received 
you.' Nothing less than the self-denial of our Lord, 
who pleased not Himself, is our law. What He was 
we must be. What He did we must do. 

What a glorious life will it be in the Church of 
Christ when this law prevails! each one considers it 
the object of existence to make others happy. Each 
one denies himself, seeks not his own, esteems others 
better than himself. All thought of taking offence, of 
wounded pride, of being slighted or passed by, would 
pass away. As a follower of Christ, each would seek 
to bear the weak and to please his neighbor. The 
true self-denial would be seen in this, that no one 
would think of himself, but live in and for others. 



64 LIKE CHRIST 

'If any man will cojne after me, let him deny him- 
self, take up his cross, and follow me.'* This word 
not only gives us the will, but also the power for self- 
denial. He who does not simply wish to reach heaven 
through Christ, but comes after Him for His own 
sake, YfiW follow Him. And in his heart Jesus speed- 
ily takes the place that self had. Jesus only becomes 
the centre and object of -such a life. The undivided 
surrender to follow Him is crowned with this wonder- 
ful blessing, that Christ by His Spirit Himself be- 
<3omes his life. Christ's spirit of self-denying love is 
poured out upon hm, and to deny self is the greatest 
joy of his heart, and the means of the deepest com- 
munion with God. Self-denial is no longer a work 
ie simply does as a means of attaining perfection for 
himself. Nor is it merely a negative victory, of 
which the main feature is the keeping self in check. 
Christ has taken the place of self, and His love and 
gentleness and kindness flow out to others, now that 
^elf is parted with. No command becomes more 
blessed or more natural than this: ' We ouglit not to 
f lease ourselves^ for even Christ pleased not Himself,'* 
' Ki any man come after me, let him deny himself, and 

rOLLOW ME.' 

Beloved Lord, I thank Thee for this new call to 
follow Thee, and not to please myself, even as Thou 
4Hst not please Thyself. I thank Thee that I have 



IN HIS SELF-DENIAL. 65 

now no longer, as once, to hear it with fear. Thy 
commandments are no longer grievous tome; Thy 
yoke is easy, and Thy burden light. What I see in 
Thy life on earth as my example, is the certain 
pledge of what I receive from Thy life in heaven. I 
did not always so understand it. Long after I had 
known Thee, I dared not think of self-denial. But 
for him who has learned what it is to take up the 
cross, to be crucified with Thee, and to see the old 
man nailed to the cross, it is no longer terrible to 
deny it. Oh, my Lord ! who would not be ashamed 
to be the friend of a crucified and accursed criminal? 
Since I have learned that Thou art my life, and that 
Thou dost wholly take charge of the life that is wholly 
entrusted to Thee, to work both to will and to do, I 
do not fear but Thou wilt give me the love and wis- 
dom in the path of self-denial joyfully to follow Thy 
footsteps. Blessed Lord, Thy disciples are not worthy 
of this grace; but since Thou hast chosen us to it, 
we will gladly seek not to please ourselves, but every 
one his neighbour, as Thou hast taught us. And 
may Thy Holy Spirit work it in us mightily. Amen. 
5 



LIKE CHRIST: 



EIGHTH DAY. 



LIKE CHKIST 

IN HIS SELF-SACRIFICE. 

'Walk in love, even as Christ also hath loved us, and 
hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God 
for a sweet-smelling savour. ' — Eph. v. 2. 

* Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid 
down His life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives 
for the brethren. '—1 John iii. 16. 

WHAT is the connection between self-sacrifice and 
self-denial? The former is the root from 
which the latter springs. In self-denial, self-sacrifice 
is tested, and thus strengthened and prepared each 
time again to renew its entire surrender. Thus it 
was with the Lord Jesus. His incarnation was a 
self-sacrifice; His life of self-denial was the proof of 
it; through this, again. He was prepared for the 
great act of self-sacrifice in His death on the cross. 
Thus it is with the Christian. His conversion is to 
a certain extent the sacrifice of self, though but a 
very partial one, owing to ignorance and weakness. 
From that first act of self-surrender arises the obliga- 
tion to the exercise of daily self-denial. The Chris- 
tian's efforts to do so show him his weakness, and 



IN HIS SELF-SACRIFICE, 67 

prepare him for that new and more entire self-sacrifice 
in which he first finds strength for more continuous 
self-denial. 

Self-sacrifice is of the very essence of true love. 
The very nature and blessedness of love consist in 
forgetting self, and seeking its happpiness in the 
loved one. Where in the beloved there is a want or 
need, love is impelled by its very nature to oflEer up 
its own happiness for that of the other, to unite itself 
to the beloved one, and at any sacrifice to make him 
the sharer of its own blessedness. 

Who can say whether this is not one of the secrets 
which eternity will reveal, that sin was permitted 
because otherwise God's love could never so fully 
have been revealed? The highest glory of God's 
love was manifested in the self-sacrifice of Christ. 
It is the highest glory of the Christian to be like 
his Lord in this. Without entire self-sacrifice the 
new command, the command of love, cannot be ful- 
filled. Without entire self-sacrifice we cannot love 
as Jesus loved. *Be ye imitators of God,' says the 
apostle, *and walk in love, even as Christ hath loved 
us, and given Himself a sacrifice for us.' Let all 
your walk and conversation be, according to Christ's 
example, in love. It was this love that made His 
sacrifice acceptable in God's sight, a sweet-smelling 
savour. As His love exhibited itself in self-sacrifice, 
let your love prove itself to be conformable to His in 



68 LIKE CHRIST: 

the daily self-sacrifice for the welfare of others, so 
will it also be acceptable in the sight of God. *We 
ought to lay down our lives' for the brethren.' 

Down even into the daily affairs of home life, in 
the intercourse between husband and wife, in the re- 
lation of master and servant, Christ's self-sacrifice 
must be the rule of our walk. * Likewise, ye hus- 
bands, love your wives even as Christ loved the 
Church, and gave Himself for it. ^ 

And mark specially the words, *Hath given Him- 
self for us an offering to God, ' We see that self- 
sacrifice has here two sides. Christ's self-sacrifice 
had a God ward as well as a man ward aspect. It was 
for us^ but it was to God that He offered Himself as 
a sacrifice. In all our self-sacrifice there must be 
these two sides in union, though now the one and 
then again the other may be more prominent. 

It is only when we sacrifice ourselves to God that 
there will be the power for an entire self-sacrifice. 
The Holy Spirit reveals to the believer the right of 
God's claim on us, how we are not our own, but His. 
The realization of how absolutely we are God's prop- 
erty, bought and paid for with blood, of how we are 
loved with such a wonderful love, and of what blessed- 
ness there is in the full surrender to Him, leads the 
believer to yield himself a whole burnt-offering. He 
lays himself on the altar of consecration, and finds it 
his highest joy to be a sweet-smelling savour to Ms 



IN HIS SELF-SACRIFICE. 69 

God, God-devoted and God-accepted. And then it 
becomes his first and most earnest desire to know how 
God would have him show this entire self-sacrifice in 
life and walk. 

God points him to Christ's example. He was 
a sweet-smelling savour to God when He gave Him- 
self a sacrifice /or us. For every Christian who gives 
himself entirely to His service, God has the same 
honour as He had for His Son, He uses him as an. 
instrument of blessing to others. Therefore John 
says, 'He who loveth not his brother whom he hath 
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?^ 
The self-sacrifice in which you have devoted yourself 
to God's service, binds you also to serve your fellow- 
men; the same act which makes you entirely God's, 
makes you entirely theirs.* 

It is just this surrender to God that gives the power 
for self-sacrifice towards others, and even makes it a 
joy. When faith has first appropriated the promise, 
'Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me,' I understand the 
glorious harmony between sacrifice to God and sacri- 
fice for men. My intercourse with my fellow-men, 
instead of being, as many complain, a hindrance to 
unbroken communion with God, becomes an opportu- 
nity of offering myself unceasingly to Him. 

Blessed calling! to walk in love even as Christ 
*See note. 



70 LIKE CHRIST: 

loved cs, and gave Himself for us a sacrifice and 
sweot-smelling savour to God. Only thus can the 
Church fulfil its destiny, and prove to the world that 
she is set apart to continue Christ's work of self- 
sacrificing love, and fill up that which remaineth be- 
hind of the afflictions of Christ. 

Bat does God really expect us to deny ourselves so 
entirely for others? Is it not asking too much? 
Can any one really sacrifice himself so entirely? 
Christian! God does expect it. Nothing less than 
this is the conformity to the image of His Son, to 
which He predestinated you from eternity. This is 
the path by which Jesus entered into His glory and 
blessedness, and by no other way can the disciple 
enter into the joy of his Lord. It is in very deed our 
calling to lecome exactly lilce Jesus in His love and 
self-sacrifice. 'Walk in love, even as Christ loved.' 

It is a great thing when a believer sees and ac- 
knowledges this. That God's people and even God's 
servants understand it so little, is one great cause of 
the impotence of the Church. In this matter the 
Church indeed needs a second reformation. In the 
great Eeformation three centuries ago,' the power of 
Christ's atoning death and righteousness were brought 
to light, to the great comfort and joy of anxious souls. 
But we need a second reformation to lift on high the 
banner of Christ's example as our law, to restore the 
truth of the power of Christ's resurrection as it makes 



IN HIS SELF-SACRIFICE. 71 

US partakers of the life and the likeness of our Lord. 
Christians must not only believe in the full union 
with their Surety for their reconciliation, but with 
their Head as their example and their life. They 
must really represent Christ upon earth, and let men 
see in the members how the Head lived when He was 
in the flesh. Let us earnestly pray that God's chil- 
dren everywhere may be taught to see their holy 
calling. 

And all ye who already long after it, oh, fear not 
to yield yourselves to God in the great act of a Christ- 
like self-sacrifice! In conversion you gave yourself to 
God. In many an act of self-surrender since then 
you have again given yourselves to Him. But ex- 
perience has taught you how much is still wanting. 
Perhaps you never knew how entire the self-sacrifice 
must be and could be. Come now and see in Christ 
your example, and in His sacrifice of Himself on the 
cross, ivhat your Father expects of you. Come now 
and see in Christ — for He is your head and life — what 
He will enable you to be and do. Believe in Him, that 
what He accomplished on earth in His life and death 
as your example, He will now accomplish in you from 
heaven. Offer yourself to the Father in Christ, with 
the desire to be, as entirely and completely as He, 
an offering and a sacrifice unto God, given up to God 
for men. Expect Christ to work this in you and to 
maintain it. Let your relation to God be clear and 



72 LIKE CHRIST: 

distinct; you, like Christ, wholly given up to Him. 
Then it will no longer be impossible to walk in love 
as Christ loved us. Then all your intercourse with 
the brethren and with the world will be the most 
glorious opportunity of proving before God how com- 
pletely you have given yourself to Him^ an offering 
and a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour. 

my God, who am I that Thou shouldst have 
chosen me to be conformed to the image of Thy Son 
in His self-sacrificing love? In this is His divine 
perfection and glory, that He loved not His own life, 
but freely offered it for us to Thee in death. And in 
this I may be like Him; in a walk in love I may 
prove that I too have offered myself wholly to God. 

my Father, Thy purpose is mine; at this sol- 
emn moment I affirm anew my consecration to Thee. 
Not in my own strength, but in the strength of Him 
who gave Himself for me. Because Christ, my ex- 
ample, is also my life, I venture to say it : Father, in 
Christ, like Christ, I yield myself a sacrifice to Thee 
for men. 

Father, teach me how Thou wouldst use me to 
manifest Thy love to the world. Thou wilt do it by 
filling me full of Thy love. Father, do it, that I 
may walk in love, even as Christ loved us. May I 
live every day as one who has the power of Thy Holy 
Spirit to enable me to love every one with whom I 



IN HIS SELF-SACRIFICE. 73 

come into contact, under every possible circumstance, 
to love with a love which is not of me, but of Thy- 
self. Amen. 

NOTE. 

One of the most earnest and successful labourers in 
the work of saving the lost writes as follows: *If I 
had not been led to a clearer and fuller experience of 
what salvation is, I never could have gone through 
the work of the last few years. But, at the same 
time, one thing has continually been becoming clearer, 
that we cannot speak of unbroheyi fellowsliip with our 
Lord unless we give up ourselves, and that 'without 
ceasing, to a world lying in the wicked one, to save 
in the strength of our Lord what He gives us to save. 
A consecration to the Lord ivitliout a consecration to 
our neighbor becomes an illusion or leads to fanati- 
cism. It is this giving up of ourselves to the world to 
be its light and salt, to love it even when it hates us, 
that constitutes for all really consecrated souls the 
true battle of life. To find in labour our rest, and 
in fighting the sin around us in the power of Jesus 
our highest joy, to rejoice more in the happiness of 
others than our own, and so not to seek anything for 
ourselves, but everything for others, this, this is our 
holy calling. ' 

May God help us not only to admire such thoughts, 
but at once to join the little bands among His chil- 
dren who are really giving up everything, and making 
their life work the winning of souls for Jesus. 



LIKE CHRIST: 



NINTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

NOT OF THE WORLD. 

* These are in the world. ' 'The world hath hated them, 
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of tha 
world. ' * They are not of the world, even as I am not of 
the world. '—John xvii. 11, 14, 16. 

' Even as He is, so are we in this world. ' — 1 John iv. 17. 

IF Jesus was not of the world, why was He in the 
world? If there was no sympathy between Him 
and the world, why was it that He lived in it, and 
did not remain in that high and holy and blessed 
world to which He belonged? The answer is, The 
Father had sent Him into the world. In these two 
expressions, *In the world,' 'Not of the world,' we 
find the whole secret of His work as Saviour, of His 
glory as the God-man. 

'In the luorld;'^ in human nature, because God 
would show that this nature belonged to Him, and 
not to the god of this world, that it was most fit to 
receive the divine life, and in this divine life to reach 
its highest glory. 

'In the tuorldj^ in fellowship with men, to enter 



J 



NOT OF THE WORLD, 75 

into loving relationship with them, to be seen and 
known of them, and thus to win them back to the 
Father. 

'In the world;'* in the struggle with the powers 
which rule the world, to learn obedience, and so to 
perfect and sanctify human nature. 

'Not of the ivorld^^ but of heaven, to manifest and 
bring nigh the life that is in God, and which man 
had lost, that men might see and long for it. 

' Not of the world;'* witnessing against its sin and 
departure from God, its impotence to know and 
please God. 

'Not of the luorld;'* founding a kingdom entirely 
heavenly in origin and nature, entirely independent 
of all that the world holds desirable or necessary, with 
principles and laws the very opposite of those that 
rule in the world. 

'Not of the tvorld;^ in order to redeem all who be- 
long to Him, and bring them into that new and 
heavenly kingdom which He had revealed. 

'Li the world^^ 'Not of the loorld,'* In these two 
expressions we have revealed to us the great mystery 
of the person and work of the Saviour. 'Not o/the 
world,' in the power of His divine holiness judging 
and overcoming it; still in the world, and through 
His humanity and love seeking and saving all that 
can be saved. The most entire separation from the 
world, with the closest fellowship with those in the 



76 LIKE CHRIST: 

world ; these two extremes meet in Jesus, in His own 
person He has reconciled them. And it is the calling 
of the Christian in his life to prove that these two 
dispositions, however much they may seem at vari- 
ance, can in our life too be united in perfect har- 
mony. In each believer there must be seen a heavenly 
life shining out through earthly forms. 

To take one of these two truths and exclusively 
cultivate it, is not so difficult. So you have those 
who have taken ^Not of the world,' as their motto. 
From the earliest ages, when people thought they 
must fly to cloisters and deserts to serve God, to our 
own days, when some seek to show the earnestness of 
their piety by severity in judging all that is in the 
world, there have been those who counted this the 
only true religion. There was separation from sin, 
but then there was also no fellowship with sinners. 
The sinner could not feel that he was surrounded with 
the atmosphere of a tender heavenly love. It was a 
one-sided and therefore a defective religion. 

Then there are those who, on the other side, lay 
stress on *In the world,' and very specially appeal to 
the words of the apostle, 'For then must ye needs go 
out of the world.' They think that, by showing that 
religion does not make us unfriendly or unfit to enjoy 
all that there is to enjoy, they will induce the world 
to serve God. It has often happened that they have 
indeed succeeded in making the world very religious. 



NOT OF THE WORLD. 77 

but at too high a price; — religion became very 
worldly. 

The true follower of Jesus must combine both. If 
he does not clearly show that he is not of the world, 
and prove the greater blessedness of a heavenly life, 
how will he convince the world of sin, or prove to her 
that there is a higher life, or teach her to desire what 
she does not yet possess? Earnestness, and holiness, 
and separation from the spirit of the world must 
characterize him. His heavenly spirit must manifest 
that he belongs to a kingdom not of this world. An 
unworldly, an other-worldly, a heavenly spirit must 
breathe in him. 

And still he must live as one who is 'in the world.' 
Expressly placqd here of God, among those who are 
of the world, to win their hearts, to acquire influence 
over them, and to communicate to them of the Spirit 
which is in him, it must be the great study of his life 
how he can fulfil this his mission. Not, as the wisdom 
of the world would teach, by yielding, and comply- 
ing, and softening down the solemn realities of relig- 
ion, will he succeed. No, but only by walking in the 
footsteps of Him who alone can teach how to be in 
the world and yet not of it. Only by a life of serv- 
ing and suffering love, in which the Christian dis- 
tinctly confesses that the glory of God is the aim of 
his existence, and in which, full of the Holy Spirit, 
he brings men into direct contact with the warmth 



78 LIKE CHRIST: 

and love of the heavenly life, can he be a blessing to 
the world. 

Oh, who will teach us the heavenly secret, of unit- 
ing every day in our lives what is so diflBcult to unite, 
— to be in the world, and not of the world? He can 
do it who has said : *They are not of the world, even 
AS I am not of the world.' That 'EVEi^ as' has a 
deeper meaning and power than we know. If we 
suffer the Holy Spirit to unfold that word to us, we 
shall understand what it is to be in the world as He 
was in the world. That *evex as' has its root and 
strength in a life union. In it we shall discover the 
divine secret, that the more entirely one is not of the 
worlds the more fit he is to he in the world. The freer 
the Church is of the spirit and principles of the 
world, the more influence she will exert in it. 

The life of the world is self-pleasing and self-exal- 
tation. The life of heaven is holy, self-denying love. 
The weakness of the life of many Christians who seek 
to separate themselves from the world, is that they 
have too much of the spirit of the world. They seek 
their own happiness and perfection more than aught 
else. Jesus Christ was not of the world, and had 
nothing of its spirit ; this is why He could love sin- 
ners, could win them and save them. The believer 
is as little of the world as Christ. The Lord says: 
'Not of the world, even as I am not of the world.' 
In this new nature he is born from heaven, has the 



NOT OF THE WORLD. 79 

life and love of heaven in him; his supernatural 
heavenly life gives him power to be in the world 
without being of it. The disciple who believes fully 
in the Christ-likeness of his inner life, will experience 
the truth of it. He cultivates and gives utterance ta 
the assurance: 'Even" as Christ, so am I not of the 
world, because I am in Christ.' He understands 
that alone in close union with Christ can his separa- 
tion from the world be maintained ; in as far as Christ 
lives in him can he lead a heavenly life. He sees 
that the only way to answer to his calling is, on the 
one side, as crucified to the world to withdraw him- 
self from its power; and, on the other, as living in. 
Christ to go into it and bless it. He lives in heaven 
and walks on earth. 

Christians! see here the true imitation of Jesus 
Christ. 'Wherefore come out from among them, and 
be ye separate, saith the Lord.' Then the promise 
is fulfilled, 'I will dwell in them and walk in them.* 
Then Christ sends you, as the Father sent Him, to 
be in the w^orld as the place ordained of your Father 
to glorify Him, and to make known His love. Not 
so much in the desire to leave earth for heaven, as in 
the willingness to live the life of heaven here on 
earth, does a truly unworldly, a heavenly spirit, mani- 
fest itself. 

*Not of the world' is not only separation from and 
testimony against the world, but is the living mani- 



80 LIKE CHRIST: 

festation of the spirit, and the love, and the power of 
the other world, of the heaven to which we belong, 
in its divine work of making this world partaker of 
its blessedness. 

O Thou great High Priest! who in Thy high- 
priestly power didst pray for ns to the Father, as 
those who, no more than Thyself, belong to the 
world, and still must remain in it, let Thy all-prevail- 
ing intercession now be effectual in our behalf. 

The world has still entrance to our hearts, its 
selfish spirit is still too much within us. Through 
unbelief the new nature has not always full power. 
Lord, we beseech of Thee, as fruit of Thy all-power- 
ful intercession, let that word be fully realized in us: 
*Not of the world, eyek as I am not of the world.' 
In our likeness to Thee is our only power against the 
world. 

Lord, we can only be like Thee when we are one 
with Thee. We can only walk like Thee when we 
abide in Thee. Blessed Lord, we surrender ourselves 
to abide in Thee alone. A life entirely given to 
Thee Thou dost take entire possession of. Let Thy 
Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, unite us so closely with 
Thyself that we may always live as not of the world. 
And let Thy Spirit so make known to us Thy work 
in the world, that it may be our joy in deep humility 
and fervent love to exhibit to all what a blessed life 



NOT OF THE WORLD. 81 

there is in the world for those who are not of the 
world. May the proof that we are not of the world 
be the tenderness and fervency with which, like Thee, 
we sacrifice ourselves for those who are in the world. 
Amen. 



82 LIKE CHRIST: 



TENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN HIS HEAVENLY MISSION. 

* As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also 
sent them into the world. ' — John xvii. 18. 

'As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. ' — John 
XX. 21. 

THE Lord Jesus lived here on earth under a deep 
consciousness of having a mission from His 
Father to fulfil. He continually used the expression, 
*The Father hath sent me.'* He knew what this 
mission was. He knew the Father had chosen Him, 
and sent Him into the world with the one purpose of 
fulfilling that mission, and He knew the Father 
would give Him all that He needed for it. Faith in 
the Father having sent Him was the motive and power 
for all that He did. 

* It will repay the trouble to compare carefully the fol- 
lowing passages : John v. 24, 30, 37, 38, vi. 38, 39, 40, 44, 
vii. 16, 28, 29, 33. viii. 16, 18, 26, 29, 42, ix. 4, xi. 42, xii. 
44, 45, 49, xiii. 20, xiv. 24, xv. 21, xvi. 25, xvii. 8, 18, 21, 
23, 25, XX. 21. Christ wanted men to know that He did 
not act independently, but on behalf of Another who had 
sent Him. The consciousness of a mission never left Him 
for a moment. 



IN HIS HEAVENLY MISSION 83 

In earthly things it is a great help if an ambassa- 
dor knows clearly what his mission is; that he has 
nothing to do but to care for its accomplishment; 
and that he has given himself undividedly to do this 
one thing. For the Christian it is of no less conse- 
quence that he should know that he has a mission, 
what its nature is, and how he is to accomplish it. 

Our heavenly mission is one of the most glorious 
parts of our conformity to our Lord. He says it 
plai*nly in the most solemn moments of His life; 'that 
EVEN AS the Father sent Him,' so He sends His dis- 
ciples. He says it to the Father in His high-priestly 
prayer, as the ground upon which He asks for their 
keeping and sanctification. He says it to the dis- 
ciples after His resurrection, as the ground on "which 
they are to receive the Holy Spirit. K'othing will 
help us more to knoAV and fulfil our mission than to 
realize how perfectly it corresponds to the mission of 
Christ, how they are, in fact, identical. 

Our mission is like His in its object. Why did the 
Father send His Son? To make known His love and 
His will in the salvation of sinners. He ^vas to do 
this, not alone by word and precept, but in His own 
person, disposition, and conduct to exhibit the 
Father's holy- love. He was so to represent the un- 
seen Father in heaven, that men on earth might know 
what like the Father was. 

After the Lord had fulfilled His mission He as- 



84 LIKE CHRIST: 



cended into heaven, and became to the world like the 
Father, the Unseen One. And now He has made 
over His mission to His disciples, after having shown 
them how to fulfil it. They must so represent Him, 
the Invisible One, that from seeing them men can 
judge what He is. Every Christian must so be the 
image of Jesus— must so exhibit in his person and 
conduct the same love to sinners, and desire for their 
salvation, as animated Christ, that from them the 
world may know what like Christ is. Oh, my soul! 
take time to realize these heavenly thoughts: Our 
mission is like Christ's in its object, the showing forth 
of the holy love of heaven in earthly form. 

Like Christ's in its origin too. It was the Father's 
love that chose Christ for this work, and counted Him 
worthy of such honour and trust. We also are chosen 
by Christ for this work. Every redeemed one knows 
that it was not he who sought the Lord, but the Lord 
who sought and chose him. In that seeking and 
drawing the Lord had expressly this heavenly mission 
in view. 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen 
you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring 
forth fruit. ' 

Believer! whoever thou art, and wherever thou 
dwellest, the Lord, who knows thee and thy sur- 
roundings, has need of thee, and has chosen thee to 
be His representative in the circle in which thou 
movest. Fix thy heart on this. He has fixed His 



I 



IN HIS HEAVENLY MISSION 85 

heart on thee and saved thee, in order that thou 
shouldst bear and exhibit to those who surround 
thee the very image of His unseen glory. Oh, think 
of this origin of thy heavenly mission in His everlast- 
ing love, as His had its origin in the love of the 
Father. Thy mission is in very truth just like His. 
Like it, too, in the fitting for it. Every ambassa- 
dor expects to be supplied with all that he needs for 
his embassy. *He who hath sent me is with me. 
The Father hath not left me alone;' that word tells 
us how, when the Father sent the Son, He was always 
with Him, His strength and comfort. Even so the 
Church of Christ in her mission: *Go ye and teach 
all nations,' has the promise: 'Lo, I am with you 
alway. ' The Christian need never hold back because 
of unfitness. The Lord does not demand anything 
which He does not give the power to perform. Every 
believer may depend on it, that as the Father gave 
His Holy Spirit to the Son to fit Him for His work so 
the Lord Jesus will give His people too all the prepar- 
ation they need. The grace to show forth Christ 
evermore, to exhibit the lovely light of His example 
and likeness, and like Christ Himself to be a Foun- 
tain of love and life and blessing to all around, is 
given to every one who only heartily and believingly 
takes up his heavenly calling. In this too, that the 
sender cares for all that is needful for the sent ones> 
is our mission like His. 



SQ LIKE CHRIST: 

And like also in the consecration icliicli it demands. 
The Lord Jesus gave Himself entirely and nndivid- 
edly over to accomplish His work; He lived for it 
alone. 'I must work the work of Him that sent me 
while it is day: the night cometh when no man can 
work.' The Father's mission was the only reason of 
His being on earth; for that alone He would live; to 
reveal to mankind what a glorious blessed God the 
Father in heaven was. 

As with Jesus, so with us. Christ's mission is the 
only reason for onr ieing on eartli; were it not for 
that, He would take us away. Most believers do not 
believe this. To fulfil Christ's mission is with them 
at best something to be done along with other things, 
for which it is difficult to find time and strength. 
And yet it is so certainly true: to accomplish Christ's 
mission is the only reason of my being upon earth. 
Then first when I believe this, and like my Lord in 
His mission consecrate myself undividedly to it, shall 
I indeed live well-pleasing to Him. This heavenly 
mission is so great and glorious, that without an en- 
tire consecration to it we cannot accomplish it. 
^'ithout this, the powers which fit us for it cannot 
take possession of us. Without this, we have no lib- 
erty to expect the Lord's wonderful help and the 
fulfilment of all His blessed promises. Just as with 
Jesus, our heavenly mission demands nothing less 
than entire consecration. Am I prepared for this? 



IN HIS HEAVENLY MISSION 87 

Then I have indeed the key through which the holy 
hidden glories of this word of Jesus will be revealed 
to my experience: 'As the Father sent me, even so 
send I you.' 

brothers! this heavenly mission is indeed worthy 
that we devote ourselves entirely to it as tlie only 
thing we live for. 

Lord Jesus! Thou didst descend from heaven to 
earth to show us what the life of heaven is. Thou 
couldst do this because Thou wert of heaven. Thou 
didst bring with thee the image and Spirit of the 
heavenly life to earth. Therefore didst Thou so 
gloriously exhibit what constitutes the very glory of 
heaven : the will and love of the unseen Father. 

Lord! Thou art now the Invisible One in heaven, 
and sendest us to represent Thee in Thy heavenly 
glory as Saviour. Thou dost ask that we should so 
love men that from us they may form some idea of 
how Thou lovest them in heaven. 

Blessed Lord! our heart cries out: How canst 
Thou send us with such a calling? How canst Thou 
expect it of us who have so little love? How can we, 
who are of the earth earthy, show what the life of 
heaven is? 

Precious Saviour! our souls do bless Thee that we 
know that Thou dost not demand more than Thou 
givest. Thou who art Thyself the Life of heaven, 



88 LIKE CHRIST: 

Thou livest Thyself in Thy disciples. Blessed be Thy 
holy name, they have from Thee Thy Holy Spirit 
from heaven as their life-breath. He is the heavenly 
life of the soul: whoever surrenders himself to the 
leading of the Spirit can fulfil his mission. In the 
joy and power of the Holy Spirit we can be Thy image- 
bearers, can show to men in some measure what Thy 
likeness is. 

Lord, teach me and all Thy people to understand 
that we are not of the world, as Thou wert not of the 
world, and therefore are sent of Thee, even as Thou 
wert sent of the Father, to prove in our life that we 
are of that world, full of love, and purity, and bless- 
ing, of which Thou wert. Amen. 



AS THE ELECT OF GOD, 89 



ELEVENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

AS THE ELECT OF GOD. 

* Predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, 
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. '— - 
Rom. viii. 29. 

SCEIPTUEE teaches us a personal election. It 
does this not only in single passages; its whole 
history of the working out here in time of the coun- 
sels of eternity , proves it. We see continually how 
the whole future of God's kingdom depends upon the 
faithful filling of His place by some single person; 
the only security for the carrying out of God's pur- 
pose is His foreordaining of the individual. In pre- 
destination alone the history of the world and of 
God's kingdom, as of the individual believer, has its 
sure foundation. 

There are Christians who cannot see this. They 
are so afraid of interfering with human responsi- 
bility, that they reject the doctrine of divine predes- 
tination, because it appears to rob man of his liberty 
of will and action. Scripture does not share this 
fear. It speaks in one place of man's free will as 



90 LIKE CHRIST: 

though there were no election, in another of election 
as though there were no free will. Thus it teaches 
lis that we must hold fast both these truths alongside 
each other, even when we cannot understand them, 
or make them perfectly to harmonize. In the light 
of eternity the solution of the mystery will be given. 
He who grasps both in faith will speedily experience 
how little they are in conflict. He will see that the 
stronger his faith is in God's everlasting purpose, the 
more his courage for work will be strengthened ; while, 
on the other side, the more he works and is blessed, 
the clearer it will become that all is of God. 

For this reason it is of so much consequence for a 
believer to make his election sure. The Scriptures 
give the assurance that if we do this, 'we shall never 
stumble' {R. F.). The more I believe not only in 
general that I am elected of God, but see how this 
election has reference to every part of my calling, the 
more shall I be strengthened in the conviction that 
God Himself will perfect His work in me, and that 
therefore it is possible for me to be all that God really 
expects. With every duty Scripture lays upon me, 
with every promise for whose fulfilment I long, I will 
go to find in God's purposes the firm footing upon 
which my expectations may rest, and the true meas- 
ure by which they are to be guided. I shall under- 
stand that my life on earth is to be a copy of the 
heavenly life-plan, that the Father has drawn out, of 



AS THE ELECT OF GOD. 91 

what I am to be on earth. Christian! make your 
calling and election sure ; let it become clear to you 
that you are elected, and to what; *If ye do these 
things, ye shall never stumble. ' Quiet communion 
with God on the ground of His unchangeable purpose 
imparts to the soul an immovable firmness that keeps 
from stumbling. 

One of the most blessed expressions in regard ta 
God's purpose concerning us in Christ is this word: 
'Predestinated to be conformed to the image of His 
Son.' The man Christ Jesus is the elect of God; in 
Him election has its beginning and end. *In Him 
we are chosen;' for the sake of our union with 
Him and to His glory our election took place. The 
believer who seeks in election merely the certainty of 
his own salvation, or relief from fear and doubt, 
knows very little of its real glory. The purposes of 
election embrace all the riches that are prepared for 
us in Christ, and reach to every moment and every 
need of our lives. 'Chosen in Him that we should 
be holy and blameless before Him in love,' it is only 
when the connection between election and sanctifica- 
tion is rightly apprehended in the Church that the 
doctrine of election will bring its full blessing (2 
Ihess, ii. IS; 1 Pet. i, 2). It teaches the believer how 
it is God who must work all in him, who will work 
all in him, and how he may rely even in the smallest 
matters upon the unchangeable purpose of God to 



93 LIKE CHRIST: 

work out itself in the accomplishment of everything 
that He expects of His people. In this light the 
word 'Predestinated to be conformed to the image of 
His Son' gives new strength to every one who has be- 
gun to take what Christ is as the rule of what he 
himself is to be. 

Christian ! would you in very deed be like Christ, 
fix your mind upon the thought of how certainly this 
is God's will concerning you; how the whole of re- 
demption has been planned with the view of your 
becoming so; how God's purpose is the guarantee 
that your desires must be fulfilled. There, where 
your name is written in the book of life, there stands 
also, 'Predestinated to be conformed to the image of 
His Son. ' All the powers of the Deity which have 
already wrought together in the accomplishment of the 
first part of the eternal purpose, the revealing of the 
Father's perfect likeness in the man Christ Jesus, are 
equally engaged to accomplish the second part, and 
work that likeness in each of God's children. In the 
work of Christ there is the most perfect provision 
possible for the carrying out of God's purposes in 
this. Our union to Christ, held fast in a living faith, 
will be an all-prevailing power. We can depend upon 
it as something ordained with a divine certainty, 
and that must come if we yield ourselves to it. Has 
not God elected us to be conformed to the image of 
His Son? 



II 



AS THE ELECT OF GOD, 93 

It can easily be nnderstopd what a powQrful influ- 
ence the living consciousness of this truth will have. 
It teaches us to give up ourselves to the Eternal Will, 
that it may, w^ith divine power, effect its purpose in 
us. It shows us how useless and impotent our own 
efforts are to accomplish this work ; all that is of God 
must also be through Him. He who is the begin- 
ning, must be the middle and the end. In a very 
wonderful manner it strengthens our faith with a 
holy boldness to glory in God alone, and to expect 
from God Himself the fulfilment of every promise 
and every command, of every part of the purpose of 
His blessed will. 

And where does this likeness to Christ consist? la 
Sonship. It is to the image of His Son we are to be 
conformed. All the different traits of a Christlike 
life resolve themselves into this one as their spring 
and end. We are 'predestinated unto the adoption 
of children by Jesus Christ. ' It was as the Son Christ 
lived and served and pleased the Father. It is only 
as a son with the spirit of His own Son in my heart, 
that I can live and serve and please the Father. I 
must each day walk in the full and clear conscious- 
ness: like Christ, I am a son of the Most High God, 
born from above, the beloved of the Father. As a 
son the Father is engaged to provide my every need. 
As a son I live in dependence and trust, in love and 
obedience, in joy and hope. It is when I live with 



94 LIKE CHRIST: 

the Fathei: as a son, that it becomes possible to make 
any sacrifice and to obey every command. 

Believer! take time and prayer to take in this 
truth, and let it exercise its full power in your soul. 
Let the Holy Spirit write it into your inmost being, 
that you are predestinated to be conformed to the 
image of His Son. The Father's object was the hon- 
our of His Son, 'that He might be the firstborn 
among many brethren.' Let this be your object too 
in all your life so to show forth the image of your 
Elder Brother, that other Christians may be pointed 
to Him alone, may praise Him alone, and seek to fol- 
low Him more closely too. Let it be the fixed and 
only purpose of your life, the great object of your 
believing prayer, that * Christ be magnified in my 
body.' This will give you new confidence to ask and 
expect all that is necessary to live like Christ. Your 
conformity to Christ will be one of the links connect- 
ing the eternal purpose of the Father with the eternal 
fulfilment of it in the glorifying of the Son. Your 
conformity to Christ becomes then such a holy, 
heavenly, divine work, that you realize that it can 
come only from the Father, but that from Him you 
can and shall most certainly receive it. What God's 
purpose has decreed, God's power will perform. ^ 
What God's love has ordained and commanded, God's 
love will most certainly accomplish. A living faith 
in His eternal purpose will become one of the mighti- 



AS THE ELECT OF GOD. 96^ 

est powers in urging and helping us to live lik\ 
Christ. 

Thou incomprehensible Being, I bow before 
Thee in deepest humility. It has been such a 
strength to know that Thy Son has chosen me, in 
order to send me into the world as Thou hadst sent 
Him. But here Thou hast led me still higher, and 
shown that this mission to be as He was in the world 
was from eternity decreed by Thyself. my God, 
my soul bows prostrate in the dust before Thee. 

Lord God, now that Thy child comes to Thee for 
the fulfilment of Thy own purpose he dares confi- 
dently look for an answer. Thy will is stronger than 
the very hindrance. The faith that trusts Thee will 
not be put to shame. Lord, in holy reverence and 
worship, but with childlike confidence and hope, I 
utter this prayer: Father, give me the desire of my 
soul, conformity to the image of Thy Son ; Father, 
likeness to Jesus, this is what my soul desires of Thee. 
Let me, like Him, be Thy holy child. 

my Father, write it in Thy book of remem- 
brance, and write it in my remembrance too, that I 
have asked it of Thee as what I desire above all 
things, conformity to the image of Thy Son. 

Father, to this Thou hast chosen me; Thou wilt 
give it me, to Thine own and His glory. Amen. 



LIKE CHRIST: 



TWELFTH DAY. 



LIKE CHKIST 

IN DOma GOD'S WILL. 

* For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, 
but the will of Him that sent me. ' — John vi. 38, v. 3. 

IN the will of God we have the highest expression of 
His divine perfection, and at the same time the 
highest energy of His divine power. Creation owes 
its being and its beauty to it; it is the manifestation 
of God's will. In all nature the will of God is done. 
In heaven the angels find their highest blessedness in 
doing God's will. For this man was created with a 
free will, in order that he might have the power to 
choose, and of his own accord do God's will. And, 
lo ! deceived by the devil man committed the great sin 
of rather doing his own than God's will. Yes, rather 
Ms own than God^s will! in this is the root and the 
wretchedness of sin. 

Jesus Christ became man to bring us back to the 
blessedness of doing God's will. The great object of 
redemption was to make us and our will free from 
the power of sin, and to lead us again to live and do 
the will of God. In His life on earth He showed us 



IN DOING GOD'S WILL. 97 

what it is to live only for the will of God; in His 
death and resurrection He won for us the power to 
live and do the will of God as He had done. 

'Lo, I come to do. Thy will, God.' These words, 
uttered through the Holy Spirit by the mouth of one 
of His prophets long ages before Christ's birth, are 
the key to life on earth. At Nazareth in the carpen- 
ter's shop, at the Jordan with John the Baptist, in 
the wilderness with Satan, in public with the multi- 
tude, in living and dying, it was this that inspired 
and guided and gladdened Him; the glorious will of 
the Father was to be accomplished in Him and by 
Him. 

Let us not think that this cost Him nothing. He 
says repeatedly, ^N^of my ivill^ but the will of the 
Father,' to let us understand that there was in very 
deed a denial of His own will. In Gethsemane the 
sacrifice of His own will reached its height, but what 
took place there was only the perfect expression of 
what had rendered His whole life acceptable to the 
Father. Not herein is sin, that man has a creature- 
will different from the Creator's, but in this, that he 
clings to his own will Avhen it is seen to be contrary 
to the will of the Creator. As man, Jesus had a 
human will, the natural, though not sinful desires 
which belong to human nature. As man. He did not 
always know beforehand what the will of God was. 
He had to wait, and be taught of God, and learn 
7 



98 LIKE CHRIST: 

from titne to time what that will was. But when the 
will of His Father was once known to Him, then He 
was always ready to give up His own human will, and 
do the will of the Father. It was this that consti- 
tuted the perfection and the value of His self-sacrifice. 
He had once for all surrendered Himself as a man, to 
live only in and for the will of God, and was always 
ready, even to the sacrifice of Gethsemane and Cal- 
vary, to do that will alone. 

It is this life of ohedience^ wrought out by the Lord 
Jesus in the flesh, that is not only imputed to us, but 
imparted through the Holy Spirit. Through His 
death our Lord Jesus has atoned for our self-will and 
disobedience. It was by conquering it in His own 
perfect obedience that He atoned for it. He has thus 
not only blotted out the guilt of our self-will before 
God, but broken its power in us. In His resurrection 
He brought from the dead a life that had conquered 
and destroyed all self-will. And the believer who 
knows the power of Jesus' death and resurrection, 
has the power to consecrate himself entirely to God's 
will. He knows that the call to follow Christ means 
nothing less than, to take and speak the words of the 
Master as his own solemn vow, ^I seek not my own 
will, but the will of the Father.' 

To attain this we must begin by taking the same 
stand that our Lord did. Take God's will as one 
great whole, as the only thing for which you live on 



IN DOING GOD'S WILL. 99 

earth. Look at the sun and moon, the grass and 
flowers, see what glory each of them has, only because 
it is just doing God's will. But they do it without 
knowing it. Thou canst do it still more gloriously, 
because knowing and willing to do it. Let thine 
heart be filled with the thought of the glory of God's 
will concerning His children, and concerning thee, 
and say it is Thy one purpose that that will should 
be done in thee. Yield thyself to the Father fre- 
quently and distinctly, with the declaration that w4th 
thee, as Tvith Jesus, it is a settled thing that His 
beautiful and blessed will must and shall be done. 
Say it frequently in thy quiet meditations, with a 
joyful and trusting heart: Peaise God! I may 

LIVE OXLY TO DO THE WILL OF GOD. 

Let no fear keep us back from this. Think not 
that this will be too hard for us to do; God's will 
only £eems hard as long as we look at it from a dis- 
tance, and are unwilling to submit to it. Just look 
again how beautiful the will of God makes everything 
in nature. Ask yourself, now that He loves and 
blesses you as a child, if it is right to distrust Him. 
The will of God is the will of His love, how can you 
fear to surrender yourself to it? 

Nor let the fear that you will not be able to obey 
that will, keep you back. The Son of God came on 
earth to show what the life of man must and may be- 
come. His resurrection life gives us power to live as 



100 LIKE CHRIST: 

He lived. Jesus Christ enables us, through His Spirit, 
to walk not after the flesh, but according to the will 
of God. 

*I come to do Thy will, God:' before ever the 
Lord Jesus was come down to earth, a believer in the 
Old Testament was able, through the Spirit, to speak 
that word of himself as well as for Christ. Christ 
took it up and filled it with new life-power. And 
now He expects of His redeemed ones that, since He 
has been on earth, they will even more heartily and 
entirely make it their choice. Let us do so. AVe 
must not first try and see whether, in single instances, 
we succeed in doing God's will, in the hope of after- 
wards attaining to the entire consecration that can 
say: 'I come to do Thy will.' No, this is not the 
right way. Let us first recognize God's will as a 
whole, and the claims it has upon us, as well as its 
blessedness and glory. Let us surrender ourselves to 
it as to God Himself, and consider it as one of the 
first articles of our creed: I am in the world, like 
Christ, only to do the Father's will. This surrender 
will teach us with joy to accept every command and 
every providence as part of the will we have already 
yielded ourselves to. This surrender will give us 
courage to wait for God's sure guidance and strength, 
because the man who lives only for God's will may 
depend upon it that God takes him for his reckoning. 
This surrender will lead us deeper into the conscious- 



I 



IN DOING GOD'S WILL. 101 

ness of our utter impotence, but also deeper into the 
fellowship and the likeness of the beloved Son, and 
make us partakers of all the blessedness and love that 
the Son has prepared for us. There is nothing that 
will bring us closer to God in union to Christ than 
loving and keeping and doing the will of God. 

Child of God ! one of the first marks of conformity 
to Christ is obedience, simple and implicit obedience 
to all the will of God. Let it be the most marked 
thing in thy life. Begin by a willing and whole- 
hearted keeping of every one of the commands of 
God's holy Word. Go on to a very tender yielding 
to everything that conscience tells thee to be right, 
even when the Word does not directly command it. 
So shalt thou rise higher; a hearty obedience to the 
commandments, as far as thou knowest them, and a 
ready obedience to conscience wherever it speaks, are 
the preparation for that divine teaching of the Spirit 
which will lead thee deeper into the meaning and 
application of the Word, and into a more direct and 
spiritual insight into God's will with regard to thy- 
self personally. It is to those wJio obey Him God 
gives the Holy Spirit, through whom the blessed will 
of God becomes the light that shines ever more 
brightly on our path. *If any man will do His will 
he shall know.' Blessed will of God! blessed obedi- 
ence to God's will! oh, that we knew to connt and 
keep these as our most precious treasures! 



102 LIKE CHRIST: \ 

And if ever it appear too hard to live only for God's 
will, let us remember wherein Christ found His 
strength : it was because it was the Father'' s will that 
the Son rejoiced to do it. 'This commandment have 
I received of my Father, ' This made even the laying 
down of His life possible. Our union to Jesus, and 
our calling to live like Him, ever point to us to His * 
Sonship as the secret of His life and strength. Let 
U be our chief desire to say each day: I am the 
l^^ather's beloved child, and to think of each com- 
•nandment as the Father'^ s will ; a Christlike sense of 
Bonship will lead to a Christlike obedience. 

my God, I thank Thee for this wondrous gift. 
Thy Son become man, to teach us how man may do 
the will of his God. I thank Thee for the glorious 
calling to be like Him in this too, with Him to taste 
the blessedness of a life in perfect harmony with Thy 
glorious and perfect will. I thank Thee for the 
power given in Christ to do and to bear all that will. 
I thank Thee that in this too I may be like the first- 
begotten Son. 

1 come now, my Father, afresh to take up this 
my calling in childlike, joyous trust and love. Lord, 
I would live wholly and only to do Thy will. I would 
abide in the Word and wait upon the Spirit. I 
would, like Thy Son, live in fellowship with Thee in 
prayer, in the firm confidence that Thou wilt day by 



IN DOING GOD'S WILL. 103 

day make me to know Thy will more clearly. my 
Father, let this my desire be acceptable in Thy sight. 
Keep it in the thoughts of my heart for ever. Give 
me grace with true joy continually to say: Not my 
^will, but the will of my Father must be done: I am 
here on the earth only to do the will of my God. 
<Amen. 



104 LIKE CHRIST: 



THIRTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN HIS COMPASSION. 

* Then Jesus said, I have compassion on the multitude. ' 
— Matt. x. 32. 

* Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy 
fellow -servant, even as I had compassion on thee?'— Matt. 
xviii. 32. 

ON three different occasions Matthew tells us that 
our Lord was moved with compassion on the 
multitude. His whole life was a manifestation of 
the compassion with which He had looked on the 
sinner from everlasting, and of the tenderness with 
which He was moved at the sight of misery and 
sorrow. He was in this the true reflection of our 
compassionate God, of the father who, moved with 
compassion towards his prodigal son, fell on his neck 
and kissed him. 

In this compassion of the Lord Jesus we can see 
how He did not look upon the will of God He came 
to do as a duty or an obligation, but had that divine 
will dwelling within Him as His own, inspiring and 
ruling all His sentiments and motives. After He 



IN HIS COMPASSION. 105 

had said, 'I came from heaven, not to do my own 
will but the will of Him that sent me,' He at once 
added, 'And this is the tuill of the Father, that of 
all He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but 
should raise it up again at the last day.' 'And this 
IS the will of Him that sent me, that every one which 
believeth on the Son may have everlasting life. ' For 
the Lord Jesus the will of God consisted not in cer- 
tain things which were forbidden or commanded. 
No, He had entered into that which truly forms the 
very heart of God's will, and that is, that to lost 
sinners He should give eternal life. Because God 
Himself is love. His will is that love should have full 
scope in the salvation of sinners. The Lord Jesus 
came down to earth in order to manifest and accom- 
plish this will of God. He did not do this as a ser- 
vant obeying the will of a stranger. In His personal 
life and all His dispositions He proved that the lov- 
ing will of His Father to save sinners was His own. 
Not only His death on Golgotha, but just as much 
the compassion in which He took and bore the need 
of all the wretched, and the tenderness of His in- 
tercourse with them, was the proof that the Father's 
will had truly become His own. In every way He 
showed that life was of no value to Him but as the 
opportunity of doing the will of His Father. 

Beloved followers of Christ, who have offered your- 
selves to imitate Him, let the will of the Father be to 



106 LIKE CHRIST: 

you what it was to your Lord. The will of the Father 
in the mission of His Son was the manifestation and 
the triumph of divine compassion in the salvation of 
lost sinners. Jesus could not possibly accomplish 
this will in any other way than by having and show- 
ing this compassion. God's vnll is for vs what it was 
for Jesus: the solvation of the perishing. It is impos-^ 
sible for us to fulfil that will otherwise than by hav- 
ing, and bearing about, and showing in our lives the 
compassion of our God. The seeking of God's will 
must not be only denying ourselves certain things 
which God forbids, and doing certain works which 
God commands, but must consist specially in this, 
that we surrender ourselves to have the same mind 
and disposition towards sinners as God has, and that 
we find our pleasure and joy alone in living for this. 
By the most personal devotion to each poor perish- 
ing sinner around us, and by our helping them in 
compassionate love, we can show that the will of 
God is become our will. With the compassionate 
God as our Father, with Christ who was so often 
moved with compassion as our life, nothing can be 
more just than the command that the life of every 
Christian should be one of compassionate love. 

Compassion is the spirit of love which is awakened^ 
bv the sio^ht of need or wretchedness. What abun- 
dant occasion is there every day for the practice of 
this heavenly virtue, and what a need of it in a world 



IN HIS COMPASSION, 107 

80 full of misery and sin ! Every Christian ought 
therefore by prayer and practice to cultivate a com- 
passionate heart, as one of the most precious marks 
of likeness to the blessed Master. Everlasting love 
I longs to give itself to a perishing world, and to 
find its satisfaction in saving the lost. It seeks for 
vessels tuJiich it may fill with the love of God^ and send 
out among the dying tliat they may drink and live for 
ever. It asks hearts to fill with its own tender com- 
passion at the sight of all the need in which sinners 
live, hearts that will reckon it their highest blessed- 
ness, as the dispensers of God's compassion, to live 
entirely to bless and save sinners. my brother, 
the everlasting compassion which has had mercy on 
thee calls thee, as one who has obtained mercy, to 
come and let it fill thee. It will fit thee, in thy 
compassion on all around, to be a witness to God's 
compassionate love. 

The opportunity for showing compassion we have 
all around us. How much there is of temporal want! 
There are the poor and the sick, widows and or- 
phans, distressed and despondent souls, w^ho need 
nothing so much as the refreshment a compassionate 
heart can bring. They live in the midst of Chris- 
tians, and sometimes complain that it is as if there 
are children of the world who have more sympathy 
than those who are only concerned about their own 
salvation. brothers, pray earnestly for a compas- 



108 LIKE CHRIST: 

sionate heart, always on the lookout for an oppor- 
tunity of doing some work of love, always ready to 
be an instrument of the divine compassion. It was 
the compassionate sympathy of Jesus that attracted 
so many to Him upon earth : that same compas- 
sionate tenderness will still, more than anything, 
draw souls to you and to your Lord.* 

And how much of spiritual misery surrounds us 
on all sides! Here is a poor rich man. There is a 
foolish, thoughtless youth. There is again a poor 
drunkard, or a hopeless unfortunate. Or perhaps 
none of these, but simply people entirely wrapt up 
in the follies of the world which surround them. 
How often are words of unloving indifference, or 
harsh judgment, or slothful hopelessness, heard con- 
cerning all these I The compassionate heart is want- 
ing. Compassion looks upon the deepest misery as 
the place prepared for her by God, and is attracted 
by it. Compassion never wearies, never gives up 
hope. Compassion will not allow itself to be re- 
jected, for it is the self-denying love of Christ which 
inspires it. 

The Christian does not confine his compassion to 
his own circle; he has a large heart. His Lord has 
shown him the whole heathen world as his field of 
labour. He seeks to be acquainted with the circum- 
stances of the heathen ; he carries their burden on his 
* See note. 



IN HIS COMPASSION, 109 

heart; he is really moved with compassion, and 
means to help them. Whether the heathenism is 
near or far ofE, whether he witnesses it in all its filth 
and degradation, or only hears of it, compassionate 
love lives only to accomplish God's will in saving the 
perishing. 

Like Christ in Bis compassion: let this now be 
our motto. After uttering the parable of the Com- 
passionate Samaritan, who, 'moved with compassion,* 
helped the wounded stranger, the Lord said, 'Go and 
do likewise.' He is Himself the compassionate Sa- 
maritan, who speaks to every one of us whom He has 
saved, *Go and do likewise.' Even as I have done 
to you, do ye likewise. We, who owe everything to 
His compassion, who profess ourselves His followers, 
who walk in His footsteps and bear His image, oh, let 
us exhibit his compassion to the world. We can do 
it. He lives in us. His Spirit works in us. Let us 
with much prayer and firm faith look to His example 
as the sure promise of what we can be. It will be 
to Him an unspeakable joy, if He finds us prepared 
for it, not only to show His compassion to us, but 
through us to the world. And ours will be the un- 
utterable joy of having a Christ-like heart, full of 
compassion and of great mercy. 

O my Lord! my calling is becoming almost too 
high. In Thy compassionate love, too, I must fol- 



110 LIKE CHRIST: 

low and imitate and reproduce Thy life. In the 
compassion wherewith I see and help every bodily 
and spiritual misery, in the gentle, tender love where- 
with every sinner feels that I long to bless men, must 
the world form some idea of Thy compassion. Most 
merciful One! forgive me that the world has seen so 
little of it in me. Most mighty Kedeemer! let Thy 
compassion not only save me, but so take hold of me 
and dwell in me that compassion may be the very 
breath and joy of my life. May Thy compassion 
towards me be within me a living fountain of com- 
passion towards others. 

Lord Jesus, I know Thou canst only give this on 
one condition, that I let go my own life, and my 
efforts to keep and sanctify that life, and suffer Thee 
to live in me, to be my life. Most merciful One, I 
yield myself to Thee! Thou hast a right to me, 
Thou alone. There is nothing more precious to me 
•than Thy compassionate countenance; what can be 
more blessed than to be like Thee? 

Lord, here I am. I have faith in Thee, that 
Thou Thyself wilt teach and fit me to obey Thy word : 
*Thou shouldst have had compassion, even as I had 
compassion on thee.' In that faith I go out this 
very day to find in my intercourse with others the 
opportunity of showing how Thou hast loved me. 
In that faith it will become the great object of my 
life to win men to Thee. Amen. 



IN HIS COMPASSION, 111 



NOTE. 



*Evil can only be overcome by the contact of a 
most personal self-devotion, never by a love that 
stands at a distance. ** Ye are the salt of the earth,'* 
Jesus said: ye yourselves just as you are, in the 
midst of society: in everyplace and every moment 
a sanctifying power must flow out from you and 
your presence. Christ Himself is the life and the 
light. In all that He does, or says, or suffers, it is 
always Himself; whoever separates aught from Him- 
self no longer preserves it, it vanishes in his hands. 
And just this is the radical error of our modern 
Christianity. Men separate the words and works of 
Christ from Himself, and so it comes that many, with 
all they do as Christians, have never found Christ 
Himself. So th^re are many who trust in His suffer- 
ing and merit, who cannot show that they have 
any real fellowship with Him, or truly follow Him. 
Christ had His abode not only in Cana of Galilee, 
but also in Gethsemane and on Calvary. Alas ! are 
there not many who make their boast -of the cross, 
and yet are more afraid of the real cross than they 
are of the devil? They have so wisely arranged their 
profession of Christ's cross, that no loss to their 
honour, their goods, or their liberty can ever come 
from ,it. Christ's trae and actual imitation must 
ouce again, as in the olden times, become the stand- 
ard of Christendom. Only and alone in this way 
will faith again conquer unbelief and superstition. 
Many are laboring hard at present to prove to a 
doubting world the inspiration of Holy Scripture, 
the truth of the words and the life of the Lord Jesus. 



112 LIKE CHRIST: 

It is labour in vain, to try and prove by words and 
argument that which can alone be made hnoivn hy its 
own self-evidencing power and its actual presence! 
Let the proof be given in your deeds, that the spirit 
of the miracles dwells in \'o\xy prove above all in 
your life^ that Jesus Christ is continuing in you His 
heavenly eternal life; and your words will bring 
many to believe. But if you are wanting in this 
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, be not 
surprised if the world bestow little attention on your 
eloquent arguments. The hour is come that all 
Christendom must rise up as one man, and in the 
poiver of Christ repeat over again what Christ Himself 
did to a perishing world. This is the need there is 
for the imitation of Jesus Christ: this is the only 
valid proof for the truth of Christianity.' — From M. 
Diemer, Een nieuiv ioek va7i de navolging van Jesus 
Christus. 



IN HIS ONENESS WITH THE FATHER. 113 



FOURTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

IN HIS ONENESS WITH THE FATHER. 

* Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom 
Thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 
That they all may be one ; even as Thou, Father, art in me, 
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us : that the 
world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory 
which Thou gavest me I have given them ; that they may 
be one even as we are one. I in them, and Thou in me, 
that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world 
may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, 
even as Thou hast loved me. '—John xvii. 11, 21, 22. 

WHAT an unspeakable treasure we have in this 
high - priestly prayer! There the heart of 
Jesus is laid open to our view, and we see what His 
love desires for us. There the heavens are opened 
to us, and we learn Avhat He as our Intercessor is 
-ijontiuually asking and obtaining for us from the 
Father. 

In that prayer the mutual union of believers has a 
larger place than anything else. In His prayer for all 
who in future shall believe, this is the chief petition, 
vers. 20-26. Three times He repeats this prayer for 
their unity. 
8 



114 LIKE CHRIST: 

The Lord tells us plainly why He desires it so 
strongly. This unity is the only convincing proof to 
the world that the Father had sent Him, With all its 
blindness, the world knows that selfishness is the 
curse of sin. It helps but little that God's children 
tell that they are born again, and that they are 
happy, that they can do wonders in Jesus' name, or 
can prove that what the Scriptures teach is the 
truth. When the world sees a church from which 
selfishness is banished, then it will acknowledge the 
divine mission of Christ, because He has wrought 
such a wonder, a community of men who truly and 
heartily love one another. 

The Lord speaks of this unity three times as the 
reflection of His own oneness with the Father. He 
knew that this was the perfection of the Godhead ; 
the Father and Son, as persons separate, and yet 
perfectly one in the living fellowship of the Holy 
Spirit. And He cannot imagine anything higher 
than this, that His believing people should with Him 
and in Him be one with each other, eyek as He and 
the Father are one. 

The intercession of the Lord Jesus avails much; it 
is all -prevailing. What He asks He receives of His 
Father. But lo! the blessing which descends finds 
no entrance in hearts where tbere is no open door, 
no place prepared, to receive it. How many believers 
there are who do not even desire to be one even as 



IN HIS ONENESS WITH THE FATHER. 115 

the Father and the Son are one ! They are so accus- 
tomed to a life of selfishness and imperfect love, that 
they do not even long for such perfect love; they 
put off that union until they meet in heaven. And 
yet the Lord thought of a life on earth when He 
twice said, 'That the world may know.' 

That 'they may be one, even as we are one.' The 
Church must be awakened to understand and to 
value this prayer aright. This union is one of life 
and love at once. Some explain it as having refer- 
ence to the hidden life-union which binds all believers 
even under external divisions. But this is not what 
the Lord means; He speaks of something that the 
world can see, something that resembles the union 
between God the Father and God the Son. The 
hidden unity of life must be manifest in the visible 
unity and fellowship of love. Only when it be omes 
impossible for believers, in the different smaller 
circles in which they are associated, not to live in 
the full oneness of love with the children of God 
around them ; only when they learn that a life in 
love to each other, such as Christ's to us, and the 
Father's to Him, is simple duty, and begin to cry to 
God for His Holy Spirit; to work it in them, then only 
will there be a hope of change in this respect. The 
fire will spread from circle to circle and from church to 
church, until all who truly do the will of God will con- 
secrate themselves to abide in love, even as God is love. 



/ 

116 LIKE CHRIST: 

And what are we to do now, while we wait for and 
wish to hasten that day? Let every one who takes 
up earnestly the word of the Master, ' Even as I, so 
also ye,' let him begin with his own circle. And in 
that circle with himself first. However weak or 
sickly, however perverse or trying tlie members of 
Christ's body may be with whom he is surrounded, ^ 
let him live with them in close fellowship and love. 
Whether they are willing for it or not, whether they 
accept or reject, let him love them with a Christ-like 
love. Yes, to love them as Christ does must be the 
purpose of his life. This love will find an echo in 
some hearts at least, and awaken in them the desire, 
too, to seek after the life of love and perfect one- 
ness. 

But what discoveries such effort will bring of the 
impotence of the believer, who has been hitherto 
satisfied with the ordinary Christian life, at all to 
reach this standard! He will soon find that nothing 
■will avail but a personal, undivided consecration. 
To have a love like Christ's, I must truly have a life 
like Christ's: I must live with His life. The lesson 
must be learnt anew, that Christ in the fullest sense 
of the word will be the life of those who dare to trust 
Him for it. Those who cannot trust with a full 
trust, cannot love with a full love. 

Believer, listen once more to the simple way to 
such a life. First of all acknowledge your calling 



7.Y HIS ONENESS WITH THE FATHER. 117 

to live and love just like Christ. Confess your ina- 
bility to fulfil this calling, even in the very least. 
Listen to the word, that Christ is waiting to fit you 
to fulfil this calling, if you will give yourself unre- 
servedly to Him. Make the surrender in this, that 
conscious of being utterly unable to do anything in 
your own strength, you offer yourself to your Lord 
to work in you both to will and to do. And count 
then most confidently upon Him, who in the power 
of His unceasing intercession can save completely, to 
work in you what He has asked of His. Father for 
you. Yes, count on him who has said to the 
Father, *Thou in me and I in them, that they may 
be one, even as we are one,' that He will manifest 
His life in you with heavenly power. As you live 
with His life, you will love with His love. 

Beloved fellow-Christians, the oneness of Christ 
with the Father is our model: even as they, so 
must we be one. Let us love one another, serve one 
another, bear with one another, help one another, 
live for one another. For this our love is too small: 
but we will earnestly pray that Christ give us His 
love wherewith to love. With God's love shed 
abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, we 
shall be so one that the world will know that it is 
indeed the truth, that the Father sent Christ into 
the world, and that Christ has given in us the very 
life and love of heaven. 



118 LIKE CHRIST: 

Holy Father, we know now with what petitions 
He, who ever liveth to make intercession, continually 
approaches Thee. It is for the perfect unity of His 
disciples. Father, we too would cry to Thee for 
this blessing. Alas, how divided is Thy Church! 
It is not the division of language or country that we 
deplore, not even the difference of doctrine or teach- 
ing that so much grieves us. But, Lord! the want 
of that unity of spirit and love whereby Thy Church 
should convince the world that she is from heaven. 

Lord! we desire to confess before Thee with 
deep shame the coldness, and selfishness, and dis- 
trust, and bitterness that is still at times to be seen 
among Thy children. We confess before Thee our 
own want of that fervent and perfect love to which 
Thou hast called us. forgive, and have mercy 
upon us. 

Lord God ! visit Thy people. It is through the 
one Spirit that we can know and show our unity in 
the one Lord. Let Thy Holy Spirit work power- 
fully in Thy believing people to make them one. Let 
it be felt in every circle where God's children meet 
each other, how indispensable a close union in the 
love of Jesus is. And let my heart, too, be delivered 
from self, to realize, in the fellowship with Thy 
children, how we are one, even as Thou, Father, 
and Thy Son art one. Amen. 



I 



IN HIS DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER. 119 



FIFTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

m HIS DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER. 

* Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing 
of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing : for what 
things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like 
manner. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him 
all things that Himself doeth : and greater works than these 
will He show Him, that ye may marvel. ' — John v. 19, 20. 

* I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the 
Father knoweth me and I know the Father. ' — John x. 15 
(R. v.). 

OUR relation to Jesns is the exact counterpart of 
His to the Father. And so the words in which 
He sets forth His intercourse with the Father have 
their truth in us too. And as the words of Jesus 
in John v. describe the natural relation between 
every father and son, whether on earth or in heaven, 
they are applicable only to the Only-begotten, but to 
every one who in and like Jesus is called a son of 
God. 

We cannot better catch the simple truth and force 
of the illustration than by thinking of Jesus with 
His earthly father in the carpenter's shop learning 



120 LIKE CHRIST: 

his trade. The first thing you notice is the entire 
dependence : *The son can do nothing of himself, but 
what he seeth the father doing.' Then j'ou are 
struck by the implicit obedience that just seeks to 
imitate the father: *for whatsoever things the father 
doeth, these doeth the son in like manner.' You 
then notice the loving intimacy to which the father 
admits him, keeping back none of his secrets: 'for 
the father loveth the son, and showeth him all things 
that himself doeth.' And in this dependent obedi- 
ence on his son's part, and the loving teaching on 
the father's part, you have the pledge of an ever- 
growing advance to greater works : step by step the 
son will be led up to all that the father himself can 
do: * Greater works than these will he show him, 
that ye may marvel. ' 

In this picture we have the reflection of the rela- 
tionship between God the Father and the Son in His 
blessed humanity. If His human nature is to be 
something real and true, and if we are to understand 
how Christ is in very deed to be our example, we 
must believe fully in what our blessed Lord here 
reveals to us of the secrets of His inner life. The 
words He speaks are literal truth. His dependence 
on the Father for each moment of His life was abso- 
lutely and intensely real: 'The Son can do nothing 
of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing.' 
He counted it no humiliation to wait on Him for 



IN HIS DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER. 121 

His commands: He rather considered it His highest 
blessedness to let Himself be led and guided of the 
Father as a child. And accordingly He held himself 
bound in strictest obedience to say and do only what 
the Father showed him: 'Whatsoever things the 
Father doeth, these the Son also doeth in like 
manner.' 

The proof of this is the exceeding carefulness with 
which in everything He seeks to keep to Holy Scrip- 
ture. In His sufferings He will endure all in order 
that the Scriptures may be fiilfilled. For this He 
remained the whole night in prayer. In such con- 
tinued pra3^er He presents His thoughts to the 
Father, and waits for the answer, that He may know 
the Father's will. No child in his ignorance, no 
slave in his bondage, was ever so anxious to keep to 
what the father or master had said, as the Lord Jesus 
was to follow the teaching and guidance of His 
Heavenly Father. On this account the Father kept 
nothing hid from Him: the entire dependence and 
willingness always to learn were rewarded with the 
most perfect communication of all the Father's se- 
crets. *For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth 
Him all things, and will show Him greater works 
than these, that ye may marvel.' The Father had 
formed a glorious life plan for the Son, that in Him 
the Divine life might be shown forth in the condi- 
tions of human existence: this plan was shown to the: 



122 LIKE CHRIST: 

Son piece by piece until at last all was gloriously 
accomplished. 

Child of God, it is not only for the only-begotten 
Son that a life plan has been arranged, but for each 
orue of His children. Just in proportion as "we live in 
more or less entire dependence on the Father will 
this life plan be more or less perfectly worked out in 
our lives. The nearer the believer comes to this 
entire dependence of the Son, 'doing nothing but 
what He sees the Father do,' and then to His im- 
plicit obedience, 'whatsoever He doeth, doing these 
in like manner,' so much more will the promise be 
fullllled to us: *The Father showeth Him all things 
that He Himself doeth, and will show Him greater 
works than these.' Like Chkist! that word calls 
us to a life of conformity to the Son in His blessed 
dependence on the Father. Each one of us is invited 
thus to live. 

To such a life in dependence on the Father, the 
first thing that is necessary is a firm faith that He 
will make known His will to us. I think this is 
something that keeps many back: they cannot be- 
lieve that the Lord cares for them so much that He 
will indeed give Himself the trouble every day to 
teach them and to make known to them His will, * 
just as He did to Jesus. Christian, thou art of more 
value to the Father than thou knowest. Thou art 
as much worth as the price He paid for thee — that 



IN HIS DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER, 123 

is, the blood of His Son : He therefore attaches the 
highest value to the least thing that concerns thee, 
and will guide thee even in what is most insignifi- 
cant. He longs more for close and constant inter- 
course with thee than thou canst conceive. He can 
use thee for His glory, and make something of thee, 
higher than thou canst understand. The Father 
loves his child, and shows him what He does. That 
He proved in Jesus: and He will prove it in us too. 
There must only be the surrender to expect His 
teaching. Through His Holy Spirit He gives this 
most tenderly. Without removing us from our circle, 
the Father can so conform us to Christ's image, that 
we can be a blessing and joy to all. Do not let un- 
belief of God's compassionate love prevent us from 
expecting the Father's guidance in all things. 

Let the unwillingness to submit yourself as little 
keep you back. This is the second great hindrance. 
The desire for independence was the temptation in 
paradise, is the temptation in each human heart. It 
seems hard to be nothing, to know nothing, to will 
nothing. And yet it is so blessed. This dependence 
brings us into most blessed communion with God : 
of us it becomes true as of Jesus, *The Father loveth 
the Son, and showeth Him all things whatsoever He 
doeth.' This dependence takes from us all care and 
responsibility: we have only to obey orders. It gives 
real power and strength of will, because we know that 



124 LIKE CHRIST: 

He works in ns to will and to do. It gives ns the 
blessed assurance that our work will succeed, because 
we have allowed God alone to take charge of it. 

My brother, if you have hitherto known but little 
of this life of conscious dependence and simple obe- 
dience, begin to-day. Let your Saviour be your ex- 
ample in this. It is His blessed will to live in you, 
and in you to be again what He was here on earth. 
He only longs for your acquiescence. He will work 
it in you. Offer yourself to the Father this day, 
after the example of the First-begofcten, to do noth- 
ing of yourself but only what the Father shows you. 
Fix your gaze on Jesus as also in this the Example 
and Promise of what you shall be. Adore Him who, 
for your sake, humbled Himself, and showed how 
blessed the dependent life can be. 

Blessed dependence! it is indeed the disposition 
which becomes us towards such a God. It gives Him 
the glory which belongs to Him as God. It keeps 
the soul in peace and rest, for it allows God to care 
for all. It keeps the mind quiet and prepared to 
receive and use the Father's teaching. And it is so 
gloriously rewarded in the deeper experience of holy 
intercourse, and the continued ever-advancing dis- 
coveries of His will and work with which the Father 
crowns it. Blessed dependence! in which the Son 
lived on earth, thou art the desire of my soul. 

Blessed dependence! it was because Jesus knew 



IN HIS DEPENDENCE ON THE FATHER. 125 

that he was a So7i that he thus loved to be depend- 
ent on the Father. Of all the teaching in regard to 
the likeness to Christ this is the centre and sum: I 
must live as a Son with my Father. If I stand clear 
in this relationship, as a son realizing that the Father 
is everything to me^ a sonlike life, living through the 
Father, will be its natural and spontaneous outcome. 

my Father, the longer I fix my gaze upon the 
image of the Son, the more I discover the fearful 
ruin of my nature, and how far sin has estranged 
me from Thee. To be dependent upon Thee; there 
can be no higher blessedness than this: to trust in 
all things in a God such as Thou art, so wise and 
good, so rich and powerful. And lo! it has become 
the most difficult thing there can be; we would 
rather be dependent on our own folly than the God 
of ail glory. Even Thine own children, most 
blessed Father! often think it so hard to give up 
their own thoughts and will, and to believe that ab- 
solute dependence on God, to the very least things, 
is alone true blessedness. 

Lord! I come to Thee with the humble prayer: 
teach me this. He who purchased with His own 
blood for me the everlasting blessedness, hath shown 
me in His own life wherein that blessedness consists. 
And I know He will now lead and keep me in it. 
my Father! in Thy Son I yield myself to Thee, to be 



126 



LIKE CHRIST: 



made like Him, like Him to do nothing of myself, 
but what I see the Father doing. Father! Thou 
wilt take even me too, like the Firstborn, and for 
His sake, into Thy training, and show me what Thou 
doest. my God ! be Thou a Father unto me as 
unto Christ, and let me be Thy son, as He was* 
Amen. 



IN HIS LOVE. 127 



SIXTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

IN HIS LOVE. 

'A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one 
another ; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one 
another.' — John xiii. 34. 

* This is my commandment, That ye love one another, 
even as I have loved you. ' — John xv. 13. 

EVEN AS: We begin to understand somewhat of 
the blessedness of that little word. It is not 
the command of a law which only convinces of sin 
and impotence: it is a new command under a new 
covenant, that is established upon better promises. 
It is the command of Him who asks nothing that 
He has not provided, and now offers to bestow. It 
is the assurance that He expects nothing from us, 
that He does not work in us: evek as I have loved 
you, and every moment am pouring out that love 
upon you through the Holy Spirit, even so do ye 
love one another. The measure, the strength, and 
the work of your love you will find in my love to you. 
Even as I have loved you : that word gives us the 
measure of the love wherewith we must love each 
other. True love knows no measure: it gives itself 



128 LIKE CHRIST: 

entirely. It may take into consideration the time 
and measure of showing it; but love itself is ever 
whole and undivided. This is the greatest glory 
of Divine Love that we have, in the Father and Son, 
two persons, who in love remain One Being, each 
losing Himself in the other. This is the glory of the 
love of Jesus, who is the image of God, that He loves 
us even as the Father loves Him. And this is the 
glory of brotherly love, that it will know of no other 
law, than to love even as God and Christ. 

He who would be like Christ must unhesitatingly 
accept this as his rule of life. He knows how diflB- 
cult, how impossible it often is thus to love brethren, 
in whom there is so much that is offensive or un- 
amiable. Before going out to meet them in circum- 
stances where his love may be tried, he goes in secret 
to the Lord, and with his eye fixed on his own sin 
and unworthiness asks: How much owest thou thy 
Lord? He goes to the cross and seeks thereto fathom 
the love wherewith the Lord has loved him. He lets 
the light of the immeasurable love of Him who is in 
teaven, his Head and his Brother, shine in upon his 
soul, until he learns to feel Divine Love has but one 
law; love seeks not its own, love gives itself wholly. 
And he lays himself on the altar before his Lord; 
even as Thou hast loved me, so will I love the 
brethren. In virtue of my union with Jesus, and in 
Jesus with them, there can be no question of any- 



IN HIS LOVE. 129 

thing less: I love them as Christ did. Oh that 
Christians would close their ears to all the reasonings 
of their own hearts, and fix their eyes only on the 
law which He who loves them has promulgated in 
His own example: they would realize that there is 
nothing for them to do but this — to accept His com- 
mands and to obey them. 

Our love may recognize no other measure than 
His, because His love is the strength of ours. The 
love of Christ is no mere idea or sentiment; it is 
a real divine life power. As long as the Christian 
does not understand this, it cannot exert its full 
power in him. But when his faith rises to realize 
that Christ's love is nothing less than the imparting 
of Himself and His love to the beloved, and he be- 
comes rooted in this love as the source whence his 
life derives its sustenance, then he sees that his Lord 
simply asks that he should allow His love to flow 
through him. He must live in a Christ -given 
strength; the love of Christ constrains him, and 
enables him to love as He did. 

From this love of Christ the Christian also learns 
what the loovTc of his love to the brethren must be. 
We have already had occasion to speak of many man- 
ifestations of love: its loving service, its self-denial, 
its meekness. Love is the root of all these. It 
teaches the disciple to look upon himself as really 
called upon to be, in his little circle, just like Jesus, 
9 



130 LIKE CHRIST: 

the one who lives solely to love and help others. 
Paul prays for the Philippians: *That your love may 
abound more and more in knowledge, and in all 
judgment ' {Phil i. 9). Love does not comprehend 
at once what the work is that it can do. The be- 
liever who prays that his love may abound in knowl- 
edge, and really takes Christ's example as his rule 
of life, will be taught what a great and glorious work 
there is for him to do. The Church of God, and 
every child of God, as well as the world, has an 
unspeakable need of love, of the manifestation of 
Christ's love. The Christian who really takes the 
Lord's word, ' Love one another, even as I have loved 
you,* as a command that must be obeyed, carries 
about a power for blessing and life for all with whom 
he comes in contact. Love is the explanation of the 
whole wonderful life of Christ, and of the wonder of 
His death: Divine Love in God's children will still 
work its mighty wonders. 

'Behold what manner of love!' 'Behold how He 
loved!' These words are the superscription over 
the love of the Father and of the Son. They must 
yet become the keywords to the life of every Chris- 
tian. They will be so where in living faith and true 
consecration the command of Christ to love, even as 
He loved, is accepted as the law of life. As early as 
the cal] of Abraham this principle was deposited as a 
living seed in God's kingdom, that what God is for 



IN HIS LOVE. 131 

ns, we must be for others. 'I will bless thee,' ^and 
thou shalt be a blessing. ' If *I have loved you' is the 
highest manifestation of what God is for us, then 
*Even so love ye' must be the first and highest ex- 
pression of what the child of God must be. In 
preaching, as in the life of the Church, it mast be 
understood: 77ie love which loves like Christ is the 
sign of true discipleship. 

Beloved Christians! Christ Jesus longs for you 
in order to make you, amid those who surround you, 
a very fountain of love. The love of heaven would 
fain take possession of you, in order that, in and 
through you, it may work its blessed work on earth. 
Yield to its rule. Offer yourself unreservedly to 
its indwelling. , Honour it by the confident assur- 
ance that it can teach you to love as Jesus loved. 
As conformity to the Lord Jesus must be. the chief 
mark of your Christian walk, so love must be the 
chief mark of that conformity. Be not disheart- 
ened if you do not attain it at once. Only keep fast 
hold of the command, 'Love, even as I have loved 
you.' It takes time to grow into it. Take time in 
secret to gaze on that image of love. Take time in 
prayer and meditation, to fan the desire for it into 
a burning flame. Take time to survey all around 
you, whoever they be, and whatever may happen, 
with this one thought, 'I must love them.' Take 
time to become conscious of your union with your 



132 LIKE CHRIST: 

Lord, that every fear as to the possibility of thus 
loving, may be met with the word: 'Have not I 
commanded you : Love as I have loved ' ? Chris- 
tian, take time in loving communion with Jesus, your 
loving example, and you will joyfully fulfil this com- 
mand, too, to love even as He did. 

Lord Jesus, who hast loved me so wonderfully, and 
BOW commandest me to love even as Thou, behold 
me at Thy feet. Joyfully would I accept Thy com- 
mands, and now go out in Thy strength to manifest 
Thy love to all. 

In Thy strength, my Lord ! Be therefore pleased 
to reveal Thy love to me. Shed abroad Thy love in my 
heart through Thy Holy Spirit. Let me live each mo- 
ment in the experience that I am the beloved of God. 

Lord, let me understand that I can love, not with 
my own, but with Thy love. Thou livest in me. 
Thy Spirit dwells and works in me; from Thee 
there streams into me the love with which I can love 
others. Thou dost only ask of me that I understand 
and accept my calling, and that I surrender myself 
to live as Thou didst. Thou wouldest that I look 
upon my old nature with its selfishness and unloving- 
ness as crucified, and in faith prepare to do as Thou 
commandest. 

Lord, I do it. In the strength of my Lord, I 
would live to love even as TJioii hast loved me. Amen. 






IN HIS PRAYING. 133 



SEVENTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN HIS PRAYING. 

* And in the morning, rising up a great while before day. 
He went out, and departed into a desert place, and there 
prayed.' — Mark i. 35. 

* And He saith unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into 
a desert place, and rest awhile. ' — Mark vi. 31. 

IN His life of secret prayer, too, my Saviour is my 
example. He could not maintain the heavenly 
life in His soul without continually separating Him- 
self from man, and communing with His Father. 
With the heavenly life in me it is no otherwise: ife 
has the same need of entire separation from man, the 
need not only of single moments, but of time enough 
for intercourse with the Fountain of Life, the Father 
in heaven. 

It was at the commencement of His public minis- 
try that the event happened which so attracted the 
attention of His disciples that they wrote it down. 
After a day full of wonders and of work at Capernaum 
{vers. 21-32)^ the press in the evening became still 
greater. The whole town is before the door; sick 



134 LIKE CHRIST: 

are healed, and devils are cast out. It is late before 
they get to sleep ; in the throng there is little time 
for quiet or for secret prayer. And lo, as they rise 
early in the morning, they find Him gone. In the 
silence of the night He has gone out to seek a place 
of solitude in the wilderness; when they find Him 
there, He is still praying. 

And why did my Saviour need these hours of 
prayer? Did He not know the blessedness of silently 
lifting up His soul to God in the midst of the most 
pressing business? Did not the Father dwell in 
Him? and did He not in the depth of His heart en- 
joy unbroken communion with Him? Yes, that hid- 
den life was indeed His portion. But that life, as 
subject to the law of humanity, had need of continual 
refreshing and renewing from the fountain. It was 
a life of dependence; just because it was strong and 
true, it could not bear the loss of direct and constant 
intercourse with the Father, with whom and in whom 
it had its being and its blessedness. 

What a lesson for every Christian! Much inter- 
course with man is dissipating, and dangerous to our 
spiritual life: it brings us under the influence of the 
visible and temporal. Nothing can atone for the loss 
of secret and direct intercourse with God. Even 
work in the service of God and of love is exhausting: 
we cannot bless others without power going out from 
us; this must be renewed from above. The law of 



il 



IN HIS PRAYING. 185 

the manna, that what is heavenly cannot remain good 
long upon earth, but must day by day be renewed 
afresh from heaven, still holds good. Jesus Christ 
teaches it us: I need every day time to have com- 
munion with my Father in secret. My life is like 
His, a life hid in heaven, in God; it needs time day 
by day to be fed from heaven. It is from heaven 
alone that the power to lead a heavenly life on earth 
can come. 

And what may have been the prayers that occupied 
our Lord there so long? If I could hear Him pray, 
how I might learn how I too must pray! God be 
praised ! of His prayers we have more than one re- 
corded, that in them too we might learn to follow 
His holy example. In the high-priestly prayer {John 
xvii.) we hear Him speak, as in the deep calm of 
heaven, to His Father; in His Gethsemane prayer, 
a few hours later, we see Him call out of the depths 
of trouble and darkness unto God. In these two 
prayers we have all : the highest and the deepest that 
there is to be found in the communion of prayer be- 
tween Father and Son. 

In both these prayers we see how He addresses God. 
Each time it is Father! my Father! In that word 
lies the secret of all prayer. The Lord knew that 
He was a Son, and that the Father loved Him: with 
that word He placed Himself in the full light of the 
Father's countenance. This was to Him the greatest 



136 LIKE CHRIST: 

need and greatest blessing of prayer, to enter into the 
full enjoyment of the Father's love. Let it be thus 
with me too. Let the principal part of my prayer 
be, the holy silence and adoration of faith, in which 
I wait upon God until He reveals Himself to me, and 
gives me, through His Spirit, the loving assurance 
that He looks down upon me as a Father, that I am 
well-pleasing to Him. He who in prayer has not time 
in quietness of soul, and in full consciousness of its 
meaning, to say Abba Father, has missed the best 
part of prayer. It is in prayer that the witness of 
the Spirit, that we are children of God, and that the 
Father draws nigh and delights in us, must be exer- 
cised and strengthened. *If our heart condemn us 
not, we have confidence toward God ; and whatsoever 
we ask, we receive of Him, because we obey His com- 
mandments, and do the things that are pleasing in 
His sight. ' 

In both these prayers I also see what He desired : 
tliat the Father may be glorified. He speaks: 'I have 
glorified Thee; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also 
may glorify Thee.'* That will assuredly have been 
the spirit of every prayer; the entire surrender of 
Himself only to live for the Father's will and glory. 
All that He asked had but one object, 'That God 
might be glorified.' In this too He is my example. 
I must seek to have the spirit of each prayer I offer: 
Father! bless Thy child, and glorify Thy grace in 



IN HIS PRAYING, 137 

me, only that Thy child may glorify Thee. Every- 
thing in the universe must show forth God's glory. 
The Christian who is inspired with this thought, and 
avails himself of prayer to express it, until he is 
thoroughly imbued with it, will have power in 
prayer. Even of His work in heaven our Lord says : 
'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, 
that the Father may le glorified in the Son, ' my 
soul, learn from thy Saviour, ere ever thou pourest out 
thy desires in prayer, first to yield thyself as a whole 
burnt-offering, with the one object that God may be 
glorified in thee. 

Then thou hast sure ground on which to pray. 
Thou wilt feel the strong desire, as well as the full 
liberty, to ask the Father that in each part of Christ's 
example, in each feature of Christ's image, thou 
mayest be made like Him, that so God may be glori- 
fied. Thou wilt understand how, only in continually 
renewed prayer, the soul can surrender itself to wait 
that God may from heaven work in it what will be 
to His glory. Because Jesus surrendered Himself so 
entirely to the glory of His Father, He was worthy to 
be our Mediator, and could in His high-priestly 
prayer ask such great blessings for His people. Learn 
like Jesus only to seek God's glory in prayer, and 
thou shalt become a true intercessor, who can not 
only approach the throne of grace with his own 
needs, but can also pray for others the effectual fer- 



138 LIKE CHRIST: 

vent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much. 
The words which the Saviour put into our mouth in 
the Lord's Prayer: *Thy will be done,' because He 
was made like unto His brethren in all things, He 
took from our lips again and made His own in Geth- 
semane, that from Him we might receive them back 
again, in the power of His atonement and interces- 
sion, and so be able to pray them even as He had 
done. Thou too shalt become Christlike in that 
priestly intercession, on which the unity and pros- 
perity of the Chnrch and the salvation of sinners so 
much depend. 

And he who in every prayer makes God's glory the 
chief object will also, if God calls him to it, have 
strength for the prayer of Gethsemane. Every prayer 
of Christ was intercession, because He had given 
Himself for us; all He asked and received was in our 
interest; every prayer He prayed was in the spirit of 
self-sacrifice. Give thyself too wholly to God for 
man, and as with Jesus so with us, the entire sacri- 
fice of ourselves to God in every prayer of daily life is 
the only preparation for those single hours of soul- 
struggle in which we may be called to some special 
act of the surrender of the will that costs us tears and 
anguish. But he who has learnt the former will 
surely receive strength for the latter. 

my brother! if thou and I would be like Jesus, 
we must especially contemplate Jesus praying alone 



IN HIS PRAYING. 139 

in the wilderness. There is the secret of His wonderr 
ful life. What He did and spoke to man, was first 
spoken and lived through with the Father. In com* 
munion with Him, the anointing with the Holy 
Spirit was each day renewed. He who would be like 
Him in his walk and conversation, must simply begin 
here, that he follow Jesus into solitude. Even though 
it cost the sacrifice of night rest, of business, of in- 
tercourse with friends, the time must le found to he 
alone with the Father. Besides the ordinary hour of 
prayer, he will feel at times irresistibly drawn to enter 
into the holy place, and not to come thence until it 
has anew been revealed to him that God is his portion. 
In his secret chamber, with closed door, or in the 
solitude of the wilderness, God must be found every 
day, and our fellowship with Him renewed. If 
Christ needed it, how much more we! What it was 
to Him it will be for us. 

What it was to Him is apparent from what is writ- 
ten of His baptism : 'It came to pass that, Jesus also 
being baptized and praying^ the heaven was opened, 
and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like 
a dove upon Him : and a voice came from heaven 
which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am 
well pleased.' Yes, this will be to us the blessing of 
prayer: the opened heaven, the baptism of the Spirit, 
the Father's voice, the blessed assurance of His love 
and good pleasure. As with Jesus^ so ivith us; from 



140 LIKE CHRIST: 

dbove^from dbove^ must it all come m answer to prayer. 
Christlike praying in secret will be the secret of 
Christlike living in public. let us rise and avail 
ourselves of our wonderful privilege — the Christlike 
boldness of access into the Father's presence, the 
Christlike liberty with God in prayer. 

my blessed Lord, Thou hast called me, and I 
have followed Thee, that I may bear Thy image in 
all things. Daily would I seek Thy footsteps, that 
I may be led of Thee whithersoever Thou goest. 
This day I have found them, wet with the dew of 
night, leading to the wilderness. There I have seen 
Thee kneeling for hours before the Father. There I 
have heard Thee, too, in prayer. Thou givest up all 
to the Father's glory, and from the Father dost ask, 
and expect, and receive all. Impress, I beseech 
Thee, this wonderful vision deep in my soul: my 
Saviour rising up a great while before day to seek 
communion with His Father, and to ask and obtain 
in prayer all that He needed for His life and work. 

my Lord ! who am I that I may thus listen to 
Thee? Yea, who am 1 that Thou dost call me to 
pray, even as Thou hast done? Precious Saviour, 
from the depths of my heart I beseech Thee, awaken 
in me the same strong need of secret prayer. Con- 
vince me more deeply that, as with Thee so with me, 
the Divine life cannot attain its full growth without 



IN HIS PRAYING. 141 

much secret comnmniou with my heavenly Father, 
so that my soul may indeed dwell in the light of His 
countenance. Let this conviction awaken in me such 
burning desire that I may not rest until each day 
afresh my soul has been baptized in the streams of 
heavenly love. Thou, who art my Example and 
Intercessor ! teach me to pray like Thee. Amen. 



142 LIKE CHRIST: 



EIGHTEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

IN HIS USE OF SCRIPTURE. 

* That all things must be fulfilled which were written in 
the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and in the Psalms, 
concerning me. ' — Luke xxiv. 44. 

WHAT the Lord Jesus accomplished here on earth 
as man He owed greatly to His use of the 
Scriptures. He found in them the way marked in 
which He had to walk, the food and the strength on 
which He could work, the weapon by which He could 
overcome every enemy. The Scriptures were indeed 
indispensable to Him through all His life and passion : 
from beginning to end His life was the fulfilment of 
what had been written of Him in the volume of the 
Book. 

It is scarcely necessary to adduce proofs of this. 
In the temptation in the wilderness it was by His 
'It is ivritten^ that He conquered Satan. In His 
conflicts with the Pharisees He continually appealed 
to the Word: ^What saith the Scripture?'' 'Have 
ye not read?'' 'Is it not written?'' In His inter- 
course with His disciples it was always from the 



^1 



IN HIS USE OF SCRIPTURE, 143 

Scriptures that He proved the certainty and necessity 
of His sufferings and resurrection: 'How otherioise 
can the Scriptures te fxdfilledV And in His inter- 
course with His Father in His last, sufferings, it is in 
tlie words of Scripture that He pours out the com- 
jiaint of being forsaken, and then again commends 
His spirit into the Father's hands. All this has a 
very deep meaning. He was Himself the living 
Word. He had the Spirit without measure. If ever 
any one, He could have done without the written 
Word. And yet we see that it is everything to Him. 
More than any one else He thus shows us that tlie life 
of God in human fiesli and the word of God in human 
speech are inseparably connected. Jesus would not 
have boen what He was, could not have done what He 
did, had He not yielded Himself step by step to be 
led and sustained by the Word of God. 

Let us try and understand what this teaches us. 
The Word of God is more than once called Seed ; it 
is the seed of the Divine life. We know what seed 
is. It is that wonderful organism in which the life, 
the invisible essence of a plant or tree, is so concen- 
trated and embodied that it can be taken away and 
made available to impart the life of the tree else- 
where. This use may be twofold. As fruit we eat 
it, for instance, in the corn that gives us bread ; and 
the life of the plant becomes our nourishment and 
our life. Or we sow it, and the life of the plant re- 



144 LIKE CHRIST: 

produces and multiplies itself. In bath aspects the 
Word of God is seed. 

True life is found only in God. But that life can- 
not be imparted to us unless set before us in som^ 
shape in which we know and apprehend it. It is in 
the Word of God that the Invisible Divine life takes 
shape, and brings itself within our reach, and be- 
comes communicable. The life, the thoughts, the 
sentiments, the power of God are embodied in His '*j 
Tvords. And it is only through His Word that the 
life of God can really enter into us. His Word is the 
seed of the Heavenly life. 

As the bread of life we eat it, we feed upon it. In 
eating our daily bread, the body takes in the nourish- 
ment which visible nature, the sun and the earth, 
prepared for us in the seed-corn. We assimilate it, 
and it becomes our very own, part of ourselves, it is 
our life. In feeding upon the Word of God, the 
powers of th.e Heavenly life enter into us, and become 
our very own; we assimilate them, they become a 
part of ourselves, the life of our life. 

Or we use the seed to plant. The words of God 
are sown in our heart. They have a Divine power of 
reproduction and multiplication. The very life that 
is in them, the Divine thought, or disposition, or 
power that each of them contains, takes roots in the 
believing heart and grows up; and the very thing of 
which the word was the expression, is produced within 



IN HIS USE OF SCRIPTURE, 145 

US. The words of God are the seeds of the fulness of 
the Divine life. 

When the Lord Jesus was made man, He became 
entirely dependent upon the Word of God, He sub- 
mitted Himself wholly to it. His mother taught it 
Him. The teachers of Nazareth instructed Him in 
it. In meditation and prayer, in the exercise of 
obedience and faith. He was led, during His silent 
years of preparation, to understand and appropriate 
it. The Word of the Father was to the Son the life 
of His soul. What He said in the wilderness was 
spoken from His inmost personal experience : *Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' He felt He 
could not live but as the Word brought Him the life 
of the Father. His whole life was a life of faith, a 
depending on the Word of the Father." The Word 
was to Him not instead of the Father, but the vehicle 
for the living fellowship with the living God. And 
He had His whole mind and heart so filled with it, 
that the Holy Spirit could at each moment find 
within Him, all ready for use, the right word to sug- 
gest just as He needed it. 

Child of God ! would you become a man of God, 
strong in faith, fall of blessing, rich in fruit to the 
glory of God, be full of the Word of God. Like 
Christ, make the Word your bread. Let it dwell 
richly in you. Have your heart full of it. Feed on 

io 



143 LIKE CHRIST: 

it. Believe it. Obey it. It is only by believing 
and obeying that the Word can enter into onr inward 
parts, into our very being. Take it day by day as 
the Word that proceedeth,^ not has proceeded, but 
proceedeth, is proceeding out of the mouth of God, 
as the Word of the living God, who in it holds living 
fellowship with His children, and speaks to them in 
living power. Take your thoughts of God's will, 
and God's work, and God's purpose with you, and 
the world, not from the Church, not from Christians 
around you, but from the Word taught you by the 
Father, and like Christ, you will be able to fulfil all 
that is written in the Scripture concerning you. 

In Christ's use of Scripture the most remarkable 
thing is this: He found Himself there; He saw there 
His oivn image and likeness. And He gave Himself 
to the fulfilruent of what He found written there. 
It was this that encouraged Him under the bitterest 
sufferings, and strengthened Him for the most diffi- 
cult work. Everywhere He saw traced by God's own 
hand the Divine waymark : through suffering to glory. 
He had but one thought: to be what the Father had 
said He should be, to have His life correspond exactly 
to the image of what He should be as He found it in 
the Word of God. 

Disciple of Jesus, in the Scriptures thy likeness too 
is to be found, a picture of what the Father means 
thee to be. Seek to have a deep and clear impression 



IN HIS USE OF SCRIPTURE. 147 

of what the Father says in His word that thou should- 
est be. If this is once fully understood, it is incon- 
ceivable what courage it will give to conquer every 
difficulty. To know: it is ordained of God; I have 
seen what has been written concerning me in God's 
book; I have seen the image of what I am called in 
God's counsel to be: this thought inspires the soul 
with a faith that conquers the world. 

The Lord Jesus found His own image not only in 
the institutions, but specially in the believers of the 
Old Testament. Moses and Aaron, Joshua, David, 
and the Prophets, were types. And so He is Himself 
again, the image of believers in the New Testament. 
It is especially in Hirn and His example that we must 
find our own image in the Scriptures. 'To be 
changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by 
the Spirit of the Lord,' we must in the Scripture- 
glass gaze on that image as our own. In order to ac- 
complish His work in us, the Spirit teaches us to 
take Christ as in very deed our Example, and to 
gaze on every feature as the promise of what we 
can be. 

Blessed the Christian who has truly done this; who 
has not only found Jesus in the Scriptures, but also 
in His image the promise and example of what he is 
to become. Blessed the Christian who yields him- 
self to be taught by the Holy Spirit not to indulge in 
human thoughts as to the Scriptures and what it says 



148 LIKE CHRIST: 

of believers, but in simplicit}^ to accept what it re- 
veals of God's thoughts about His children. 

Child of God! it was 'according to the Scriptures' 
that Jesus Christ lived and died; it was 'according 
to the Scriptures' that He was raised again: all that 
the Scriptures said He must do or suffer He was able 
to accomplish, because He knew and obeyed them. 
All that the Scriptures had promised that the Father 
should do for Him, the Father did. give thyself 
up with an undivided heart to learn in the Scriptures 
what God says and seeks of thee. Let the Scriptures 
in which Jesus found every day the food of His life, 
be thy daily food and meditation. Go to God's Word 
each day with the joyful and confident expectation, 
that through the blessed Spirit, who dwells in us, the 
Word will indeed accomplish its Divine purpose in 
thee. Every word of God is full of a Divine life and 
power. Be assured that when thou dost seek to use 
the Scriptures as Christ used them, they will do for 
thee what they did for Him. God has marked out 
the plan of thy life in His Word; each day thou wilt 
find some portion of it there. Nothing makes a man 
more strong and courageous than the assurance that 
he is just living out the will of God. God Himself, 
who had thy image portrayed in the Scriptures, will 
see to it that th^ Scriptures are fulfilled in thee, if 
like His Son thou wilt but surrender thyself to this 
as the highest object of thy life. 



IN HIS USB OF SCRIPTURE. 149 

Lord, my God! I thank Thee for Thy precious 
Word, the Divine glass of all unseen and eternal reali- 
ties. I thank Thee that I have in it the image of 
Thy Son, who is Thy image, and also, wonderful 
grace! my image. I thank Thee that as I gaze on 
Him I may also see what I can be. 

my Father! teach me rightly to understand what 
a blessing Thy Word can bring me. To Thy Son, 
when here on earth, it was the manifestation of Thy 
will, the communication of Thy life and strength, 
the fellowship with Thyself. In the acceptance and 
the surrender to Thy Word He was able to fulfil all 
Thy counsel. May Thy Word be all this to me too. 
Make it to me, each day afresh through the unction 
of the Holy Spirit, the Word proceeding from the 
mouth of God, the voice of Thy living presence speak- 
ing to me. May I feel with each word of Thine that 
it is God coming to impart to me somewhat of His 
own life. Teach me to keep it hidden in my heart 
as a Divine seed, which in its own time will spring 
up and reproduce in me in Divine reality the very 
life that was hid in it, the very thing which I at first 
only saw in it as a thought. Teach me above all, O 
my God, to find in it Him who is its centre and sub- 
stance, Himself the Eternal Word. Finding Him, and 
myself in Him, as my Head and Exemplar, I shall learn 
like Him to count Thy Word my food and my life. 

1 ask this, my God, in the name of our blessed 
Christ Jesus. Amen. 



150 LIKE CHRIST: 



NINETEENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN FORGIVING. 

* Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if 
any man have a quarrel against any : even as Christ for- 
gave you, so also do ye, ' — Col. iii. 13. 

IN the life of grace forgiveness is one of the first 
blessings we receive from God. It is also one 
of the most glorious. It is the transition from the old 
to the new life; the sign and pledge of God's love: 
with it we receive the right to all the spiritual gifts 
which are prepared for us in Christ. The redeemed 
saint can never forget, either here or in eternity, that 
he is a forgiven sinner. Nothing works more might- 
ily to inflame his love, to awaken his joy, or to 
strengthen his courage, than the experience, contin- 
ually renewed by the Holy Sj)irit as a living reality, 
of God's forgiving love. Every day, yes, every 
thought of God reminds him: I owe all to pardoning 
grace. 

This forgiving love is one of the greatest marvels in 
the manifestation of the Divine nature. In it God 
finds His glory and blessedness. And it is in this 



IN FORGIVING. 151 

glory and blessedness God wants His redeemed people 
to share, when He calls upon them, as soon and as 
much as they have received forgiveness, also to bestow 
it upon others. 

Have you ever noticed how often and how expressly 
the Lord Jesus spoke of it? If we read thoughtfully 
our Lord's words in Matt, vi, 12^ 15; xviii. 2-25; 
Mark xi, 25^ we shall understand how inseparably 
the two are united: God's forgiveness of us and our 
forgiveness of others. After the Lord was ascended 
to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins, the 
Scriptures say of Him just what He had said of the 
Father, we must forgive like Him. As our text ex- 
presses it, even as Christ has forgiven you, so also do 
ye. We must be like God, like Christ, in forgiving. 

It is not difficult to find the reason for this. When 
forgiving love comes to us, it is not only to deliver us 
from punishment. No, much more; it seeks to win 
us for its own, to take possession of us and to dwell 
in us. And when thus it has come down to dwell in 
us, it does not lose its own heavenly character and 
beauty: it still is forgiving love seeking to do its 
work not alone towards us, but in us, and through us, 
leading and enabling us to forgive those who sin 
against us. So much so is this the case, that we are 
told that not to forgive is a sure sign that one has 
himself not been forgiven. He who only seeks for- 
giveness from selfishness and as freedom from punish- 



152 LIKE CHRIST: 

tnent, but- has not truly accepted forgiving love to 
rule his heart and life, proves that God's forgiveness 
has never really reached him. He who, on the other 
hand, has really accepted forgiveness will have in the 
joy with which he forgives others, a continual confir- 
mation, that his faith in God's forgiveness of himself 
is a reality. From Christ to receive forgiveness, and 
nice Christ to bestow it on others: these two are one. 
Thus the Scriptures and the Church teach: but 
what do the lives and experience of Christians say? 
Alas! how many there are w^ho hardly know that 
thus it is written, or who, if they know it, think it 
is more than can be expected from a sinful being; or 
who, if they agree in general to what has been said, 
always find a reason, in their own particular case, 
why it should not be so. Others might be strength- 
ened in evil; the offender would never forgive had 
the injury been done to him ; there are very many 
eminent Christians who do not act so; such excuses 
are never wanting. And yet the command is so very 
simple, and its sanction so very solemn: *Even as 
Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye;' 'If ye for- 
give not, neither will your Father forgive you.' 
With such human reasoning the Word of God is made 
of none effect. As though it were not just through 
forgiving love that God seeks to conquer evil, and 
therefore forgives even unto seventy times seven. 
As though it were not plain, that not what the of- 



IN FORGIVING. 153 

fender would do to me, iut what Christ has done^ 
must be the rule of my conduct. As though confor- 
mity to the example not of Christ Himself, but of 
pious Christians, were the sign that I have truly re- 
ceived the forgiveness of sins. 

Alas! what Church or Christian circle in which the 
law of forgiving love is not grievously transgressed? 
How often in our Church assemblies, in philan- 
thropic undertakings as well as in ordinary social in- 
tercourse, and even in domestic life, proof is given 
that to many Christians the call to forgive, just as 
Christ did, has never yet become a ruling principle 
of their conduct. On account of a difference of 
opinion, or opposition to a course of action that ap- 
peared to us right, on the ground of a real or a fan- 
cied slight, or the report of some unkind or thought- 
less word, feelings of resentment, or contempt, or 
estrangement, have been harbored, instead of loving^ 
and forgiving, and forgetting like Christ. In such 
the thought has never yet taken possession of mind 
and heart, that the law of compassion and love and 
forgiveness, in which the relation of the head to the 
members is rooted, must rule the whole relation of 
the members to each other. 

Beloved followers of Jesus! called to manifest His 
likeness to the world, learn that as forgiveness of 
your sins was one of the first things Jesus did for you, 
forgiveness of others is one of the first that you can 



154 LIKE CHRIST: 

do for Him. And remember that to the new heart 
there is a joy even sweeter than that of being for- 
given ; even the joy of forgiving others. The joy of 
being forgiven is only that of a sinner and of earth : 
the joy of forgiving is Christ's own joy, the joy of 
heaven. Oh, come and see that it is nothing less 
than the work that Christ Himself does, and the joy 
with which He Himself is satisfied that thou art 
called to participate in. 

It is thus that thou canst bless the world. It is as 
the forgiving One that Jesus conquers His enemies, 
and binds His friends to Himself. It is as the for- 
giving One that Jesus has set up His kingdom and 
continually extends it. It is through the same for- 
giving love, not only preached but sJioum in the life 
of Bis disciples, that the Church will convince the 
world of God's love. If the world see men and wo- 
men loving and forgiving as Jesus did, it will be com- 
pelled to confess that God is with them of a truth. 

And if it still appear too hard and too high, re- 
member that this will only be as long as we consult 
the natural heart. A sinful nature has no taste for 
this joy, and never can attain it. But in union with 
Christ we can do it: He who abides in Him walks 
even as He walked. If you have surrendered your- 
self to follow Christ in everything, then He will by 
His Holy Spirit enable you to do this too. Ere ever 
you come into temptation, accustom yourself to fix 



IN FORGIVING. 155 

your gaze on Jesus, in the heavenly beauty of His for- 
giving love as your example: 'Beholding the glory of 
the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory.' Every time you pray or thank God 
for forgiveness, make the vow that to the glory of 
His name you will manifest the same forgiving love 
to all around you. Before ever there is a question of 
forgiveness of others, let your heart be filled with 
love to Christ, love to the brethren, and love to the 
enemies: a heart full of love finds it blessed to forgive. 
Let, in each little circumstance of daily life when the 
temptation not to forgive might arise, the opportu- 
nity be joyfully welcomed to show how truly you live 
in God's forgiving love, how glad you are to let its 
beautiful light shine through you on others, and how 
blessed a privilege you feel it to be thus too to bear 
the image of your beloved Lord. 

To forgive like Thee, blessed Son of God ! I take 
this as the law of my life. Thou who hast given the 
command, givest also the power. Thou who hadst 
love enough to forgive me, wilt also fill me with love 
and teach me to forgive others. Thou who didst 
give me the first blessing, in the joy of having my 
sins forgiven, wilt surely give me the second blessing, 
the deeper joy of forgiving others as Thou hast for- 
given me. Oh, fill me to this end with faith in the 
power of Thy love in me, to make me like Thyself, 



156. LIKE CHRIST: 

to enable me to forgive the seventy times seven, and 
ao to love and bless all around me. 

my Jesus! Thy example is my lav\r: I must be 
like Thee. And Thy example is my gospel too: I 
can be as Thou art. Thou art at once my Law and 
my Life. What Thou demandest of me by Thy ex- 
ample, Thou workest in me by Thy life. I shall for- 
give like Thee. 

Lord, only lead me deeper into my dependence on 
Thee, into the all-suflBciency of Thy grace and thy 
blessed keeping which comes from Thy indwelling. 
Then shall I believe and prove the all-prevailing 
power of love. I shall forgive even as Christ has 
forgiven me. Amen. 



IN BEHOLDING HIM. 157 



TWENTIETH DAY. 



LIKE <HEIST 

IN BEHOLDma HIM. 

' But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the 
gloiy of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. ' — 2 Cob. 
iii. 18. 

MOSES had been forty days on the mount in eom- 
munion with God. When he came down, his 
face shone with Divine glory. He did not know it :/ 
himself, but Aaron and the people saw it {Ex. xxxip. 
SO). It was so evidently God's glory that Aaron and 
the people feared to approach him. 

In this we have an image of what takes place in 
the New Testament. The privilege Moses there alone , 
enjoyed is now the portion of every believer. When 
we behold the glory of God in Christ, in the glass of 
the Holy Scriptures, His glory shines upon us, and 
into us, and fills us, until it shines out from us again. 
By gazing on His glory the believer is changed 
through the Spirit into the same image. Beholding 
Jesus makes us like Him. 

It is a law of nature that the eye exercises a mighty 



158 LIKE CHRIST: 

influence on mind and character. The education of ./ 
a child is carried on greatly through the eye; he is 
moulded very much by the manners and habits of 
those he sees continually. To form and mould our 
character the Heavenly Father shows us His Divine 
glory in the face of Jesus. He does it in the expec- 
tation that it will give us great joy to gaze upon it, 
and because He knows that, gazing on it, we shall be 
conformed to the same image. Let every one who 
desires to be like Jesus note Tiow he can attain to it. 

Look continually to the Divine glory as seen in 
Christ. What is the special characteristic of that 
glory ? It is the manifestation of Divine perfection in 
human form. The chief marks of the image of the 
Divine glory in Christ are these two: His humilia- 
tion and His love. 

There is the glory of His humiliation. When you 
see how the eternal Son emptied Himself and became 
man, and how as man He humbled Himself as a ser- 
Tant and was obedient even unto the death of the 
cross, you have seen the highest glory of God. The 
glory of God's omnipotence as Creator, and the glory 
of God's holiness as King, is not so wonderful as this: 
the glory of grace which humbled itself as a servant 
to serve God and man. We must learn to look upon ^.. 
this humiliation as really glory. To he hitmhled like 
Christy must le to us the only thing worthy the name 
of glory on earth. It must become in our eyes the 



IN BEHOLDING HIM. 159 

most beautiful, the most wonderful, the most desir- 
able thing that can be imagined ; a very joy to look 
upon or to think of. The efEect of thus gazing upon 
it and admiring it will be that you will not be able to 
conceive of any glory greater than to be and act like 
Jesus, and will long to humble yourself even as He 
did. Gazing on Jesus, admiring and adoring Him, 
will work in us the same mind that there was in 
Him, and so we shall be changed into His image. 

Inseparable from this is the glory of His love. 
The humiliation leads you back to the love as its ori- 
gin and power. It is from love that the humiliation 
has its beauty. Love is the highest glory of God. 
But this love was a hidden mystery, until it was 
manifest in Christ Jesus. It is only in His human- 
ity, in His gentle, compassionate, and loving inter- 
course with men, with foolish, sinful, hostile men, 
that the glory of Divine love was first really seen. 
The soul that gets a glimpse of this glory, and that 
understands that to love Wke Christ is alone icortliy 0} 
the name of glory .^ will long to become like Christ in 
this. Beholding this glory of the love of God in 
Christ, he is changed to the same image. 

You would be like Christ? Here is the path. 
Gaze on the glory of God in Him. In Him^ that is to 
say: do not look only to the words and the thoughts 
and the graces in which His glory is seen, but look to 
Himself, the living, loving Christ. Behold Him, 



160 LIKE CHRIST: 

look into His very eye, look into His face, as a loving 
friend, as the living God. 

Look to Him in adoration. Bow before Him as 
God. His glory has an almighty living power to im- 
part itself to US, to pass over into us and to fill us. 

Look to Him in faith. Exercise the blessed trust 
that He is yours, that He has given Himself to you, 
and that you have a claim to all that is in Him. It 
is His purpose to work out His image in you. Be- 
hold Him with the joyful and certain expectation : 
the glory that I behold in Him is destined for me. 
He will give it me; as I gaze and wonder and trust, 
I become like Christ. 

Look to Him with strong desire. Do not yield to 
the slothfulness of the flesh that is satisfied without 
the full blessing of conformity to the Lord. Pray 
God to free you from all carnal resting content with 
present attainments, and to fill you with the deep un- 
quenchable longing for His glory. Pray most fer- 
vently the prayer of Moses, 'Show me Thy glory.' 
Let nothing discourage you, not even the apparently 
slow progress you make, but press onwards with ever 
growing desire after the blessed prospect that God's 
Word holds out to you: 'We are changed into the 
same image, from glory to glory. ' 

And as you behold Him, above all, let the look of 
love not be wanting. Tell Him continually how He 
has won your heart, how you do love Him, how en- 



IN BEHOLDING HIM, 161 

tirely you belong to Him. Tell Him tLat to please 
Him, the beloved One, is your highest, your only 
joy. Let the bond of love between you and Him be 
drawn continually closer. Love unites and makes 
like. 

Like Christ ! we can be it, we shall be it, each in 
our measure. The Holy Spirit is the pledge that it 
shall be. God's Holy Word has said, * We are changed 
into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by 
the Spirit of the Lord, ' This is the Spirit that was 
in Jesus, and through Whom the Divine glory lived 
and shone on Him. This Spirit is called 'The Spirit 
of glory. ' This Spirit is in us as in the Lord Jesus, 
and it is His work, in our silent adoring contempla- 
tion, to bring over into us and work within us, what 
we see in our Lord Jesus. Through this Spirit we 
have already Christ's life in us, with all the gifts of 
His grace. But that life must be stirred up and de- 
veloped: it must grow up, pass into our whole be- 
ing, take possession of our entire nature, penetrate 
and pervade it all. We can count on the Spirit to 
work this in us, if we but yield ourselves to Him and 
obey Him. As we gaze on Jesus in the W^ord, He 
opens our eyes to see the glory of all that Jesus does 
and is. He makes us willing to be like Him. He 
strengthens our faith, that what we behold in Jesus can 
be in us, because Jesus Himself is ours. He works 
in us unceasingly the life of abiding in Christ, a 
11 



163 LIKE CHRIST: 

whole-hearted union and communion with Him. He 
does according to the promise: The Spirit shall 
glorify me: for He shall take of mine and shall show 
it unto you.' We are changed into the image on 
which we gaze, from glory to glory, as hy the Spirit 
of the Lord, Let us only understand, that the fulness 
of the Spirit is given to us, and that he who believ- 
ingly surrenders himself to be filled with Him, will 
experience how gloriously He accomplishes His work 
of stamping on our souls and lives the image and like- 
ness of Christ. 

Brother! beholding Jesus and His glory, you can 
confidently expect to become like Him: only trust 
yourself in quietness and restfulness of soul to the 
leading of the Spirit. ' The Spirit of glory rests upon 
you.'*. Gaze on and adore the glory of God in Christ; 
you will be changed with Divine power from glory 
to glory; in the power of the Holy Ghost the mighty 
transformation will be wrought by which your desires 
will be fulfilled, and like Christ will be the blessed 
God-given experience of your life. 

my Lord! I do thank Thee for the glorious as- 
surance that while I am engaged with Thee, in 
my work of beholding Thy glory, the Holy Spirit 
is engaged with me, in His work of changing 
me into that image, and of laying of Thy glory on 
me. 



IN BEHOLDING HIM. 163 

Lord ! grant me to behold Thy glory aright. Moses 
had been forty days with Thee when Thy glory shone 
upon Him. I acknowledge that my communion with 
Thee has been too short and passing, that I have 
taken too little time to come under the full impres- 
sion of what Thine image is. Lord ! teach me this. 
Draw me in these my meditations too, to surrender 
myself to contemplate and adore, until my soul at 
every line of that image may exclaim : This is glori- 
ous! this is the glory of God! my God, show me 
Thy glory. 

And strengthen my faith, blessed Lord! that, even 
when I am not conscious of any special experience, 
the Holy Spirit will do His work. Moses knew not 
that his face shone. Lord! keep me from looking at 
self: May I be so taken up only with Thee as to for- 
get and lose myself in Thee. Lord ! it is he who is 
dead to self who lives in Thee. 

my Lord, as often as I gaze upon Thine image 
and Thine example, I would do it in the faith, that 
Thy holy Spirit will fill me, will take entire possession 
of me, and so work Thy likeness in me, that the 
world may see in me somewhat of Thy glory. In 
this faith I will venture to take Thy precious word, 
*From glory to glory,' as my watchword, to be to 
me the promise of a grace that grows richer every 
day, of a blessing that is ever ready to surpass itself, 
and to make what has been given only the pledge of 



164 LIKE CHRIST: 

the better that is to come. Precious Saviour! gazing 
on Thee it shall indeed be so, 'From glory to glory.' 
Amen. 

NOTE. 

I have left the preceding piece as it was originally 
published in Dutch. The English Eevised Version 
translates: 'But we all, with unveiled face reflecting 
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed 
into the same image, from glory to glory, even as 
from the Lord the Spirit;' and gives in the margin 
^beholding as in a mirror.' It is difficult to settle 
which is the better translation, as the original can 
bear both meanings. I confess that heholding ap- 
pears to me better to suit the passage: the reflecting 
the image can only come after we have been, or at 
least as we are being, 'transformed into the same 
image. ' It is only as we are transformed into it we 
can reflect it: the means of the transformation ap- 
pear to be almost better expressed by heholding than 
reflectiyig. However this may be, even if we prefer 
to translate reflecting, what has been said on behold- 
ing does not lose its force : it is the intent, longing, 
loving, adoring gaze on the glory of God in the face 
of the Beloved Son that transforms. 

What rich instruction in regard to the Divine 
Photography of which the text speaks there is in 
what we see in the human art! In the practice of 
the photographer we see two things: faith in the 
power and effects of light, and the wise adjustment of 
everything in obedience to its laws. With what care 
the tenderly sensitive plate is prepared to receive the 
impression! with what precision its relative position 



IN BEHOLDING HIM, 165 

to the object to be portrayed is adjusted ! how still 
and undisturbed it is then held face to face with 
that object! Having done this, the photographer 
leaves the light to do its v/onderful work : his work 
is indeed a work of faith. 

May we learn the precious lessons. Let us believe 
in the light, in the power of the light of God, to 
transcribe Christ's image on our heart. *We are 
changed into the same image as by the Spirit of the 
Lord.' Let us not seek to do the work the Spirit 
must do : let us simply trust Him to do it. Our duty 
is, to seek the prepared heart, waiting, longing, pray- 
ing for the likeness; to take our place face to face 
with Jesus, studying, gazing, loving, worshipping, 
and believing that the wonderful vision of that Cruci- 
fied One is the sure promise of what we can be ; and 
then, putting aside all that can distract, in stillness 
of soul, silent unto God, just to allow the Blessed 
Spirit as the Light of God to do the work. Not less 
surely or wonderfully than in the light-printing 
which is done here on earth, will our souls receive 
and show the impress of that wonderful likeness. 

I feel tempted to add one thought: what a solemn 
calling that of ministers as the servants of this Heav- 
enly Photography, ^ministers of the Spirit' in His 
work (see 2 Cor. iv. 6) : to lead believers on, and 
point them to Jesus and every trait in that blessed 
face and life as what they are to be changed to; to 
help them to that wistful longing, that deep thirst- 
ing for conformity to Jesus, which is the true prepa- 
ration of soul; to teach them how, both in public 
worship and private prayer, they have just to place 
themselves face to face with their Lord, and give 



166 LIKE CHRIST: 

Him time, as they unbare and expose their whole in- 
ner being to the beams of His love and His glory, to 
come in and take possession, by His Spirit to trans- 
form them into His own likeness. 

* Who is suflBcient for these things? Our suflBciency 
is of Grod, who hath made us able ministers of the 
Spirit. ' 



IN HIS HUMILITY. 167 



TWENTY-FIRST DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

IN HIS HUMILITY. 

' In lowliness of mind each counting other better than 
himself. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ 
Jesus, who, being in the form of God, emptied Himself, 
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of 
men ; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled 
Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of 
the cross. '—Phil. ii. 3-8 (R. V.). 

IN this wonderful passage we have a summary of all 
the most precious truths that cluster round the 
person of the blessed Son of God. There is first, His 
adorable Divinity: 'iii the form of God^'^ ^ equal ivith 
God,'' Then comes the mystery of His incarnation, 
in that word of deep and inexhaustible meaning: 
'He emptied Himself .'* The atonement follows, with 
the humiliation, and obedience, and suffering, and 
death, whence it derives its worth : 'He humbled Him- 
self^ becoming obedient unto deaths even the death of 
the cross/ And all is crowned by His glorious exal- 
tation: 'God hath highly exalted Him,'' Christ as 
God, Christ becoming man, Christ as man in humilia- 
tion working out our redemption, and Christ in glory 



168 LIKE CHRIST: 

as Lord of all: such are the treasures of wisdom this 
passage contains. 

Volumes have been written on the discussion of 
some of the words the passage contains. And yet 
sufficient attention has not always been given to the 
connection in which the Holy Spirit gives this won- 
drous teaching. It is not in the first place as a state- 
ment of truth for the refutation of error, or the 
strengthening of faith. The object is a very differ- 
ent one. Among the Philippians there was still 
pride and want of love: it is with the distinct view 
of setting Christ's example before them, and teach- 
ing them to humble themselves as He did, that this 
portion of inspiration was given: 'In lowliness of 
mind each counting other better than himself. Have 
this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus. ' 
He who does not study this portion of God's 
Word with the wish to become lowly as Christ 
was, has never used it for the one great purpose 
for which God gave it. Christ descending from 
the throne of God, and seeking His way back there 
as man through the humiliation of the cross, 
reveals the only way by which we ever can reach 
that throne. The faith which, with His atone- 
ment, accepts His example too, is alone true faith. 
Each soul that would truly belong to Him must in 
union with Him have His Spirit, His disposition, and 
His image. 



f 



IN HIS HUMILITY. 169 

'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus, who being in the form of God emptied Him- 
self, and as a man humbled Himself.' We must be 
like Christ in His self-emptying and self-humilia- 
tion. The first great act of self-abnegation, in which 
as God He emptied Himself of His Divine glory and 
power and laid it aside, was followed up by the no 
less wondrous humbling of Himself as man, to the 
death of the cross. And in this amazing twofold hu- 
miliation, the astonishment of the universe and the 
delight of the Father, Holy Scripture with the ut- 
most simplicity tells us we must, as a matter of course, 
be like Christ. 

And does Paul, and do the Scriptures, and does 
God really expect this of us? Why not? or rather, 
how can they expect anything else? They know in- 
deed the fearful power of pride and the old Adam in 
our nature. But they know also that Christ has re- 
deemed us not only from the curse but from the power 
of sin, and that He gives us His resurrection life and 
power to enable us to live as He did on earth. They 
say that He is not only our Surety, but our Example 
also; so that we not only live through Him, but like 
Him. And further, not only our Example but also 
our Head, who lives in us, and continues in us the 
life He once led on earth. With such a Christ, and 
such a plan of redemption, can it be otherwise? The 
follower of Christ must have the same mind as was in 



170 LIKE CHRIST: 

Christ; he must especially be like Him in His hu- 
mility. 

Christ's example teaches us that it is not sin that 
must humble us. This is what many Christians 
think. They consider daily falls are necessary to 
keep us humble. This is not so. There is indeed a 
humility that is very lovely, and so of great worth, as 
the beginning of something more, consisting in the 
acknowledgment of transgression and shortcomings. 
But there is a humility which is more heavenly still, 
even like Christ, which consists, even when grace 
keeps us from sinning, in the self-abasement that can 
only wonder that God should bless us, and delights 
to be as nothing before Him to whom we owe all. It 
is grace we need, and not sin, to make and keep us 
humble. The heaviest-laden branches always bow the 
lowest. The greatest flow of water makes the deepest 
river-bed. The nearer the soul comes to God, the 
more His majestic Presence makes it feel its little- 
ness. It is this alone that makes it possible for each 
to count others better than himself. Jesus Christ, 
the Holy One of God, is our example of humility: it 
was, knowing that the Father had given all things 
into His hands, and that He was come from God and 
went to God, that He washed the disciples' feet. It- 
is the Divine presence, the consciousness of the Di- 
vine life and the Divine love in us, that will make 
us humble. 



IN HIS HUMILITY. 171 

It appears to many Christians an impossibility to 
say: I will not think of self, I will esteem others bet- 
ter than myself. They ask grace to overcome the 
worst ebullitions of pride and vainglory, but an en- 
tire self-renunciation, such as Christ's, is too difficult 
and too high for them. If they only understood the 
deep truth and blessedness of the word, *He who 
humbles himself shall be exalted,' *He who loses his 
life shall find it,' they would not be satisfied with any- 
thing less than entire conformity to their Lord in 
this. And they would find that there is a way to 
overcome self and self -exaltation: to see it nailed to 
Christ's cross, and there keep it crucified continually 
through the Spirit {GaL v. 21^.; Rom. viii, 13), He 
only can grow to such humility, who heartily yields 
himself to live in the fellowship of Christ's death. 

To attain this, two things are necessary. The first 
is a fixed purpose and surrender henceforth to be 
nothing and seek nothing for oneself; but to live only 
for God and our neighbour. The other is the faith 
that appropriates the power of Christ's death in this 
also, as our death to sin and our deliverance from its 
power. This fellowship of Christ's death brings an 
end to the life, where sin is too strong for us; it is 
the commencement of a life in us where Christ is too 
strong for sin. 

It is only under the teaching and powerful working 
of the Holy Spirit that one can realize, accept, and 



172 LIKE CHRIST: 

keep hold of this truth. But God be thanked, we 
have the Holy Spirit. Oh, that we may trust our- 
selves fully to His guidance. He icill guide us, it is 
His Tvork; He will glorify Christ in us. He will 
teach us to understand that we are dead to sin and 
the old self, that Christ's life and humility are ours. 

Thus Christ's humility is appropriated in faith. 
This may take place at once. But the appropriation 
in experience is gradual. Our thoughts and feelings, 
our very manners and conversation, have been so 
long under the dominion of the old self, that it takes 
time to imbue and permeate and transfigure them 
with the heavenly light of Christ's humility. At 
first the conscience is not perfectly enlightened, the 
spiritual taste and the power of discernment have not 
yet been exercised. But with each believing renewal 
of the consecration in the depth of the soul: *I have 
surrendered myself to be humble like Jesus,' power 
will go out from Him, to fill the whole being, until 
in face, and voice, and action the sanctification of the 
Spirit will be observable, and the Christian will truly 
be clothed with humility. 

The blessedness of a Christlike humility is unspeak- 
able. It is of great worth in the sight of God, 'He 
giveth grace to the humble.' In the spiritual life it 
is the source of rest and joy. To the humble all God 
does is right and good. Humility is always ready to 
praise God for the least of His mercies. Humility 



IN HIS HUMILITY. 173 

does not find it diflBcult to trust. It submits uncon- 
ditionally to all that God says. The two whom Jesus 
praises for their great faith are just those who 
thought least of themselves. The centurion had said, 
'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under 
my roof;' the Syrophenician woman was content to 
be numbered with the dogs. In intercourse with men 
it is the secret of blessing and love. The humble 
man does not take offence, and is very careful not to 
give it. He is ever ready to serve his neighbour, be- 
cause he has learnt from Jesus the Divine beauty of 
being a servant. He finds favour with God and man. 
Oh, what a glorious calling for the follower of 
Christ! To be sent into the world by God to prove 
that there is nothing more divine than self-humilia- 
tion. The humble glorifies God, he leads others to 
glorify Him, he will at last be glorified with Him. 
Who would not be humble like Jesus? 

Thou, who didst descend from heaven, and didst 
humble Thyself to the death of the cross. Thou call- 
est me to take Thy humility as the law of my life. 

Lord, teach me to understand the absolute need of 
this. A proud follower of the humble Jesus this I 
cannot, I may not be. In the secrecy of my heart, 
and of my closet, in my house, in presence of friends 
or enemies, in prosperity or adversity, I would be 
filled with Thy humility. 



174 LIKE CHRIST: 

my beloved Lord ! I feel the need of a new, a 
deeper insight into Thy crucifixion, and my part in 
it. Eeveal to me how my old proud self is crucified 
with Thee. Show me in the light of Thy Spirit how 
I, God's regenerate child, am dead to sin and its 
power, and how in communion with Thee sin is 
powerless. Lord Jesus, who hast conquered sin, 
strengthen in me the faith that Thou art my life, and 
that Thou wilt fill me with Thy humility if I will 
submit to be filled with Thyself and Thy Holy Spirit. 

Lord, my hope is in Thee. In faith in Thee I go 
into the world to show how the same mind that was 
in Thee is also in Thy children, and teaches us in 
lowliness of mind each to esteem others better than 
himself. May God help us. Amen. 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH 175 



TWENTY-SECOND DAY. 



f LIKE OHEIST 

IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH. 

* For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrec- 
tion.— For in that He died, He died unto sin once.— Like- 
wise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but 
alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. '—Rom. vi. 5, 
10, 11. 

IT is to the death of Christ we owe our salvation. 
The better we understand the meaning of that 
death, the richer will be our experience of its power. 
In these words we are taught what it is to be one with 
Christ in the likeness of His death. Let every one 
who truly longs to be like Christ in his life, seek to 
understand aright what the likeness of His death 
means. 

Christ had a double work to accomplish in His 
death. The one was, to work out righteousness for 
us, the other to obtain life for us. When Scripture 
speaks of the first part of this work, it uses the ex- 
pression, Christ died for our sins : He took sin upon 
Himself, bore its punishment; so He made atone- 
ment, and brought in a righteousness in which we 



m 



176 LIKE CHRIST: 



could stand before God. When Scripture speaks of 
the second part of this work, it uses the expression: 
He died to sin. Dying for sin has reference to the 
judicial relation between Him and sin: God laid our 
sin upon Him : through His death atonement is made 
for sin before God. Dying to sin has reference to a 
personal relation ; through His death the connection 
in which He stood to sin was entirely dissolved. 
During His life sin had great power to cause Him 
conflict and suffering : His death made an end of this. 
Sin had now no more power to tempt or to hurt 
Him. He was beyond its reach. Death had com- 
pletely separated between Him and sin. Christ died 
to sin. 

Like Christ, the believer too has died to sin ; he is 
one with Him, in the likeness of His death. And 
as the knowledge that Christ died for sin as our atone- 
ment is indispensable to our justification; so the 
knowledge that Christ, and we with Him in the like- 
ness of His death, are dead to sin, is indispensable to 
our sanctification. Let us endeavour to understand 
this. 

It was as the second Adam that Christ died. AVith 
the first Adam we had been planted together in the 
likeness of Jiis death: he died, and we with him, and 
the power of his death works in us; we have in very 
deed died in him, as truly as he himself died. We 
understand this. Just so we are one plant with 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH 177 

Christ in the likeness of His death: He died to sin, 
and we in Him; and now the power of His death 
works in us. We are indeed dead to sin, as truly so 
as He Himself is. 

Through our first birth we were made partakers in 
Adam's death; through our second birth we become 
partakers in the death of the second Adam. Every 
believer who accepts of Christ is partaker of the 
power of His death, and is dead to sin. But a be- 
liever may have much of which he is ignorant. Most 
believers are in their conversion so occupied with 
Christ's death /or sin as their justification, that they 
do not seek to know what it means, that in Him they 
are dead to sin. When they first learn to feel theit 
need of Him as their sanctification, then the desire is 
awakened to understand this likeness of His death. 
They find the secret of holiness in it; that as Christ, 
so they also have died to sin. 

The Christian who does not understand this always 
imagines that sin is too strong for Him, that sin has 
still power over him,, and that he must sometimes 
obey it. But he thinks this because he does not know 
that he, like Christ, is dead to sin. If He but be- 
lieved and understood what this means, his language 
would be, ^Christ has died to sin. Sin has nothing 
more to say to Him. In His life and death sin had 
power over Him; it was sin that caused Him the 
sufferings of the cross, and the humiliation of the 
13 



178 LIKE CHRIST: 

grave. But He is dead to sin : it has lost all claim 
over Him, He is entirely and forever freed from this 
power. Even so I as a believer. The new life that 
is in me, is the life of Christ from the dead, a life 
that has been begotten through death, a life that is 
entii^ely dead to sin. ' The believer as a new creature 
in Christ Jesus can glory and say: 'Like Christ I am 
dead to sin. Sin has no right or power over me 
whatever. I am freed from it, therefore I need not 
sin.' 

And if the believer still sins, it is because he does 
not use his privilege to live as one who is dead to sin. 
Through ignorance or unwatchfulness or unbelief, he 
fcrgets the meaning and the power of this likeness 
of Christ's death, and sins. But if he holds fast 
what his participation with Christ's death signifies, 
he has the power to overcome sin. He marks well 
that it is not said, 'Sin is dead. ' No, sin is not dead ; 
sin lives and works still in the flesh. But he himself 
is dead to sin, and alive to God ; and so sin cannot 
for a single moment, without his consent, have do- 
minion over him. If he sin, it is because he allows 
it to reign, and submits himself to obey it. 

Beloved Christian, who seekest to be like Christ, take 
the likeness of His death as one of the most glorious 
parts of the life you covet. Appropriate it first of 
all in faith. Reckon that you are indeed dead to sin. 
Let it be a settled thing; God says it to every one of 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH 179 

His children, even the weakest; say it before Him 
too: 'Like Christ I am dead to sin.' Fear not to say- 
it; it is the truth. Ask the Holy Spirit earnestly to 
enlighten you with regard to this part of your union 
with Christ, so that it may not only be a doctrine, 
but power and truth. 

Endeavour to understand more deeply what it says 
to live as dead to sin, as one who, in dying, has been 
freed from its dominion, and who can now reign in 
life through Jesus Christ over it. Then there will 
follow upon the likeness of His death, accepted in 
faith, the conformity to His death {Phil, iii.Y some- 
thing that is gradually and increasingly appropri- 
ated, as Christ's death manifests its full power in all 
the faculties and powers of your life. 

And in order to have the full benefit of this likeness 
of Christ's death, notice particularly two things. 
The one is the obligation under which it brings you, 
*How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer 
therein?' Endeavour to enter more deeply into the 
meaning of this death of Christ into which you have 

*T}ie likeness of Christ's death in Rom. vi. preced<^s the 
likeness of His resurrection ; no one can be made alive in 
Him who has not given himself up to die with Him. The 
conformity to Christ's death in Phil. Hi. is spoken of as 
comiDg after the knowing Him in the power of His resur- 
rection : the growth of the resurrection life within us leads 
to a deeper experience of the death. The two continually 
act and react. 



180 LIKE CHRIST: 

been baptized. His death meant: Eather die than 
sin: willing to die in order to overcome sin: dead, 
and therefore released from the power of sin. Let 
this also be your position; 'Know ye not, that as 
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 
baptized into His death?' Let the Holy Spirit bap- 
tize you continually deeper into His death, until the* 
power of God's Word, dead to sin until the conform- 
ity to Christ's death, is discernible in all your walk 
and conversation. 

The other lesson is this: The likeness of Christ's 
death is not only an obligation but a power. 
Christian longing to be Christlike, if there be one 
thing you need more than and above all else, it is 
this: to know the exceeding greatness of God's power 
that worketh in you. It was in the power of eternity 
that Christ in His death wrestled with the powers of 
hell and conquered. You have part with Christ in 
His death ; you have part in all the powers by which 
He conquered. Yield yourself joyfully and believ- 
ingly to be led more deeply into the conformity to 
Christ's death, then you cannot but become like 
Him. 

my Lord! how little I have understood Thy 
grace. I have often read the words, 'planted into 
the likeness of His death,' and seen that as Thou 
didst die to sin, so it is said to Thy believing people, 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH. 181 

^Likewise also ye.' But I have not understood its 
power. And so it came that, not knowing the like- 
ness of Thy death, I knew not that I was free from 
the power of sin, and as a conqueror could have do- 
minion over it. Lord, Thou hast indeed opened to 
me a glorious prospect. The man who believingly 
accepts the likeness of Thy death, and according to 
Thy Word reckons himself dead to sin — sin shall not 
have dominion over him ; he has power to live for God. 
Lord, let Thy Holy Spirit reveal this to me more 
perfectly. I wish to take Thy word in simple faith, 
to take the position Thou assignest me as one who in 
Thee is dead to sin. Lord, in Thee I am dead to sin. 
Teach me to hold it fast, or rather to hold Thee fast 
in faith, until my whole life be a proof of it. 
Lord, take me up and keep me in communion with 
Thyself, that, abiding in Thee, I may find in Tliee 
the death unto sin and the life unto God. Amen. 

NOTE. 

At a meeting of ministers, where these words in 
Bom. vi. 11 were being discussed, the question was 
.asked by the leader, which of the five different 
thoughts of the verse was the most important. He 
pointed out what these thoughts were. The first, 
likewise also ye^ suggesting the complete likeness to 
Him of whom it had just been said, *In that He 
died. He died unto sin once; in that He liveth. He 
liveth unto God.' The second, reckon yourselves^ the 



182 LIKE CHRIST: 

command in which the duty of a large but simple 
faith is laid upon us. Then, dead indeed to si7i, the 
truth in which the teaching of the previous verses is 
summed up. Next, alive unto God^ the never-failing 
accompaniment and the blessing of the death to sin. 
And then, through Jesus Christ our Lord^ in Him 
who is ever root and centre of all Scripture teaching. 
Which of these clauses must be considered as that the 
right understanding of which is most essential to the 
full experience of the whole? 

The first answer was at once given, 'dead unto sin."* 
It is certainly this expression, the leader remarked, 
that above all has created such deep interest in this 
verse, and stirred so much earnest striving to realize 
what it implies. And yet it does not appear to me 
the most important. 

'Alive unto God^'^ was the answer of a second. For 
it is the life of Jesus given to us in regeneration that 
makes us partakers of His death and its power over 
sin. *Dead unto sin' is only the negative aspect of 
what we have as a positive reality in being alive unto 
God. If we looked more at the 'alive unto God,' 
'the dead unto sin' would be better understood. 

'Reckon yourselves'^ was suggested by a third. Is 
not this command to act faith in what has been pre- 
pared us of God the chief thought of the verse, and 
that, therefore, to which our chief attention must be 
given? 

Another brother now said, "Through Jesus Christ 
our Lord,'^ Our leader said: I think I have lately 
been taught that this is indeed that on the right ap- 
prehension of which the power of the whole verse 
depends. 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH. 183 

How man}^ have been looking most earnestly for 
the full insight into the blessedness of being dead 
unto sin and alive unto God, and yet have failed ! 
How often we have heard them pray, 'Lord, we are 
not yet utterly dead, but we long to be so'! How 
many others, who have better understood the text, 
and have seen that everything depends upon the 
* Reckon yourselves to be dead,' upon the faith that 
accepts God's statement of what is already true and 
sure, yet confess that their faith is not followed by 
the power and the blessing they hoped for! 

The mistake has been this: they have been more 
occupied with the blessings to be had in Jesus, 'dead 
unto sin,' 'alive unto God,' and the question as to 
their experience of them, or even with the effort to 
exercise a strong abiding faith in these blessings as 
theirs, than with Jesus Himself, i:n- whom both the 
blessings, and the faith that sees them, are ours. 
The death unto sin, the life unto God, are His (see 
ver. 10)^ are IN" Him, accomplished, living, actual, 
mighty realities; it is as ^^^ m^e in Him, and know 
ourselves to be in Hini^ and so come away out of our- 
selves to be and abide m Him only and always, that 
the blessings which there are in Him will, in the 
most simple and natural way possible, spontaneously 
become ours in experience, and that we shall be 
strengthened in faith to claim and enjoy them. It 
must be Christ Jesus first and Christ Jesus last. He 
must be all. 

See how clearly this comes out in the third verse of 
the chapter: 'Know ye not that so many of us as 
were baptized into Jesus Christy were baptized into 
His death?' The baptism into Jesus Christ was the 



184 LIKE CHRIST: 

first thing — that they had understood and accepted ; 
the baptism into His death followed from it — this 
they were now yet to learn the meaning of. The 
Lord Jesus had been baptized with water and with 
the Holy Spirit, and yet He spoke of a baptism yet 
to come; the full outcome of His first baptism was to 
be the death of the cross. Even so it is with us. 
AVhen baptized unto Christ we 'put on Christ' {Gal, 
in. 27)y we are made partakers of Him and all He is 
and was, of His death too. But it is only in course 
of time that we get to understand this, and really to 
claim the power of His death unto sin and His living 
unto God. But we can do this successfully only as 
we hold fast the initial all-comprehensive blessing, 
baptized into Christ. It is the faith that goes 
away out to take its abode consciously and perma- 
nently in Jesus that will have the power to say, 'Ik 
Christ Jesus' we are dead unto sin, and alive unto 
God; 'in Christ Jesus' we do boldly reckon ourselves 
dead unto sin and alive unto God. 

'Baptized into His death:' what a word! The 
death of our Lord Jesus was the chief thing about 
Him; it gives Him His beauty. His glory. His vic- 
tory. His power. In the complete conformity to this, 
the highest privilege of the Christian consists. To 
be immersed, plunged into, steeped in the death of 
Christ, the whole being penetrated with the spirit of 
that death, its obedience, its self-sacrifice, its utter 
giving up of everything that is of nature, that has 
been in contact with sin, to pass through the death 
into the new life that God gives: this must be the 
highest longing of the Christian. He has been bap- 
tized into the death: He yields himself to the Holy 
Spirit to have all that it contains unfolded and ap- 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH, 185 

plied. And he does this in simple faith: he knows 
that in Christ Jesus he is dead unto sin and alive 
unto God. Just as the life unto God is a complete 
and perfect thing, and yet subject to the law of 
growth and increase, so that he goes on to life more 
abundant, so with the death to sin. In Christ he is 
dead unto sin, completely and entirely, and yet the 
full enjoyment of what that death means and works 
in all its extent is matter of growing intelligence and 
experience. 

But let us beware of wearying ourselves — how often 
we have done so! — with trying more to comprehend 
exactly, and to realize feelingly, what this death to 
sin is, and what the conscious reckoning ourselves 
dead is, than to remember that all this comes only as 
we are and abide li^ Christ Jesus, in whom alone 
these blessings are ours. I may be so occupied with 
the blessings and their pursuit, that I lose sight and 
hold of Him in whom I must be abiding most en- 
tirely if I am to enjoy them. Let my first aim be 
in whole-hearted faith and obedience to dwell in Jesus^ 
in whom are the death unto sin and the life unto God : 
the whole state of being which is implied in these 
words is His — He lives it^ it is His alone — as I lose 
myself in Him^ I may rest assured that the blessing 
I long for will come, or rather, I shall know that in 
Him I have the thing itself, that Divine life out of 
death working in me, even when I know not exactly 
to describe it in words. And I shall see how the 
whole power and blessedness of the command gathers 
itself into the closing clause, * Likewise also ye, reckon 
yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin, and alive unto 
God, IN Christ Jesus.' In Christ is the root of 
Like Christ. 



186 LIKE CHRIST: 



TWENTY-THIRD DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION. 

* For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
His death, we should be also in the likeness of His resur- 
rection, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by 
the glory of His Father, even so ive also should walk in 
newness of life. ' — RoM. vi. 5, 4. 

ON the likeness of His death there follows neces- 
sarily the likeness of His resurrection. To speak 
alone of the likeness of His death, of bearing the 
cross, and of self-denial, gives a onesided view of fol- 
lowing Christ. It is only the power of His resurrec- 
tion that gives us strength to go on from that like- 
ness of His death as what we receive at once by faith, 
to that conformity to His death which comes as the 
growth of the inner life. Being dead with Christ 
refers more to the death of the old life to sin and the 
world which we abandon; risen with Christ refers to 
the new life through which the Holy Spirit expels 
the old. To the Christian who earnestly desires to 
walk as Christ did, the knowledge of this likeness of 
His resurrection is indispensable. Let us see if we 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION 187 

do not here get the answer to the question as to where 
we shall find strength to live in the world as Christ 
did. 

We have already seen how our Lord's life before 
His death was a life of weakness. As our Surety, sin 
had great power over Him. It had also power over 
His disciples, so that He could not give them the 
Holy Spirit, or do for them what He wished. But 
with the resurrection all was changed. Kaised by tlie 
Almighty power of God, His resurrection life was full 
of the power of eternity. He had not only conquered 
death and sin for Himself but for His disciples, so 
that He could from the first day make them partakers 
of His Spirit, of His joy, and of His heavenly power. 

When the Lord Jesus now makes us partakers of His 
life, then it is not the life that He had before His 
death, but the resurrection life that He won through 
death. A life in which sin is already made an end 
of and put away, a life that has already conquered 
hell and the devil, the world and the flesh, a life of 
Divine power in human nature. This is the life that 
likeness to His resurrection gives us: 'In that He 
liveth, He liveth unto God. Ye also likewise, reckon 
yourselves alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord.' Oh that through the Holy Spirit God might 
reveal to us the glory of the life in the likeness of 
Christ's resurrection! In it we find the secret of 
power for a life of conformity to Him. 



188 LIKE CHRIST: 

To most Christians this is a mystery, and therefore 
their life is fall of sin and weakness and defeat. 
They believe in Christ's resurrection as the sufl&cient 
proof of their justification. They think that He had 
to rise again, to continue His work in heaven as Me- 
diator. But that He rose again, in order that His 
glorious resurrection life might now be the very power 
of their daily life^ of this they have no idea. Hence 
their hopelessness when they hear of following Jesus 
fully, and being perfectly conformed to His image. 
They cannot imagine how it can be required of a sin- 
ner, that he should in all things act as Christ would 
have done. They do not know Christ in the power 
of His resurrection, or the mighty power with which 
His life now works in those, who are willing to count 
all things but loss for His sake {Phil. Hi. 8; Eph. i. 
19, 20). Come, all ye who are weary of a life unlike 
Jesus, and long to walk always in His footsteps, who 
begin to see that there is in the Scriptures a better 
life for you than you have hitherto known, come and 
let me try to show you the unspeakable treasure that 
is yours, in your likeness to Christ in His resurrec- 
tion. Let me ask three questions. 

The first is: Are you ready to surrender your life 
to the rule of Jesus and His resurrection life? I 
doubt not that the contemplation of Christ's example 
has convinced you of sin in more than one point. In 
seeking your own will and glory instead of God's, in 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION 189 

ambition and pride and selfishness and want of love 
towards man, you have seen how far you are from the 
obedience and humility and love of Jesus. And now 
it is the question, whether in view of all these things, 
in which you have acknowledged sin, you are willing 
to say: If Jesus will take possession of my life, then 
I resign all right or wish ever in the least to have or 
to do my own will. I give my life with all I have 
and am entirely to Him, always to do what He 
through His Word and Spirit commands me. If He 
will live and rule in me^ I promise unbounded and 
hearty obedience. , 

For such a surrender faith is needed ; therefore the 
second question is: Are you prepared to believe that 
Jesus will take possession of the life entrusted to Him, 
and that He will rule and keep it? When the believer 
entrusts his entire spiritual and temporal life com- 
pletely to Christ, then he learns to understand aright 
Paul's words: *I am dead; I live no more: Christ 
liveth in me.' Dead with Christ and risen again, the 
living Christ in His resurrection life takes possession 
of and rules my new life. The resurrection life is not 
a thing that I may have if I can undertake to keep 
it : No, just this is what I cannot do. But blessed 
be God ! Jesus Christ Himself is the resurrection 
and the life^ is the resurrection life. He Himself will 
from day to day and hour to hour see to it and ensure 
that 1 live as one ivho is risen with Him. He does it 



190 LIKE CHRIST: 

through that Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of His 
risen life. The Holy Spirit is in us, and will, if we 
trust Jesus for it, maintain within us every moment 
the presence and power of the risen Lord. We need 
not fear, that we never can succeed in leading such a 
holy life as becomes those who are temples of the liv- 
ing God. We are indeed not alle. But it is not re- 
quired of us. The living Jesus, wlio is the resurrec- 
tion, has shown His power over all our enemies; He 
Himself, who so loves us. He will work it in us. He 
gives us the Holy Spirit as our power, and He 
will perform His work in us with Divine faithful- 
ness, if we will only trust Him; Christ Himself is 
our life. 

And now comes the third question: Are you ready 
to use this resurrection life for the purpose for which 
God gave it Him, and gives it to you, as a power of 
blessing to the lost? All desires after the resurrection 
life will fail, if we are only seeking our own per- 
fection and happiness. God raised up and exalted 
Jesus to give repentance and remission of sins. He 
ever lives to pray for sinners. Yield yourself to re- 
ceive His resurrection life with the same aim. Give 
yourself wholly to working and praying for the per- 
ishing: then will you become a fit vessel and instru- 
ment in which the resurrection life can dwell and 
work out its glorious purposes. 

Brother! thy calling is to live like Christ. To this 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION. 191 

end tJiou hast already teen made one with Him in the 
likeness of His resurrection. The only question is 
now, whether thou art desirous after the full experi- 
ence of His resurrection life, whether thou art willing 
^to surrender thy whole life that He Himself may 
manifest resurrection power in every part of it. I 
pray thee, do not draw back. Offer thyself unreserv- 
edly to Him, with all thy weakness and unfaithful- 
ness. Believe that as His resurrection was a wonder 
above all thought and expectation, so He as the Kisen 
One will still work in thee exceeding abundantly 
above all thou couldst think or desire. 

What a difference there was in the life of the dis- 
ciples before Jesus* death and after His resurrection ! 
Then all was weakness and fear, self and sin: with 
the resurrection all was power and joy, life and love, 
and glory. Just as great will the change be, when a 
believer, who has known Jesus' resurrection only as 
the ground of his justiiScation, but has not known of 
the liJceness of His resurrection, discovers how the 
Eisen One will Himself be his life, and in very deed 
take on Himself the responsibility for the whole of 
that life. Oh, brother, who hast not yet experienced 
this, who art troubled and weary because thou art 
called to walk like Christ, and )canst not do it, come 
and taste the blessedness of giving thy whole life to 
the Eisen Saviour in the assurance that He will live 
it for thee. 



193 LIKE CHRIST: 

Lord! my soul adores Thee as the Prince of 
life! On the cross Thou didst conquer each one of 
my enemies, the devil, the flesh, the world, and sin. 
As Conquerer thou didst rise to manifest and main- 
tain the power of Thy risen life in Thy people. Thou 
hast made them one with Thyself in the likeness of 
Thy resurrection; now Thou wilt live in them, and 
show forth in their earthly life the power of Thy 
heavenly life. 

Praised be Thy name for this wonderful grace. 
Blessed Lord, I come at Thy invitation to offer and 
surrender to Thee my life, with all it implies. Too 
long have I striven in my own strength to live like 
Thee, and not succeeded. The more I sought to 
walk like Thee, the deeper was my disappointment. 
I have heard of Thy disciples who tell how blessed it 
is to cast all care and responsibility for their life on 
Thee. Lord, I am risen with Thee, one with Thee 
in the likeness of Thy resurrection ; come and take 
me entirely for Thy own, and be Thou my life. 

Above all, I beseech Thee, my Kisen Lord, reveal 
Thyself to me, as Thou didst to Thy first disciples, 
in the power of Thy resurrection. It was not enough 
that after Thy resurrection Thou didst appear to Thy 
disciples; they knew Thee not till Thou didst make 
Thyself Icnown, Lord Jesus! I do believe in Thee; 
he pleased^ he pleased to make Thyself known to me 
as my Life. It is Thy work; Thou alone canst do it. 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS EESURRECTION. 193 

I trust Thee for it. And so shall my resurrection 
life be, like Thine own, a continual source of light 
and blessing to all who are needing Thee. Amen. 

NOTE, 

I add here an extract from Marshall On Sanctifi- 
cation^ in which the reality of our being partakers 
with Jesus of the very nature in which He lived and 
died and rose again, is very clearly put. 

I have often regretted that the somewhat anti- 
quated style of this writer, and the introduction of 
questions not of immediate interest to the soul seek- 
ing the path of holiness, prevents his book from be- 
ing as well known as it deserves to be. It is on all 
hands acknowledged to be the one standard work on 
the subject. It has been given him by God's Spirit 
with wonderful simplicity to set forth the great truth 
that holiness is a new life, a new nature, prepared for 
us in Christ Jesus, and that therefore every step in 
the pathway of holiness, whether in the use of the 
means of grace or in obeying God's commands, must 
be one of faith. I have thought that an abridgment 
of the work, in which all that is essential is provided 
in the author's own words, would supply a real want 
and might be a blessing to many. I have prepared 
such an abridgment, which has been issued by the 
publishers of the present work, under the title of The 
Highway of Holiness. 

*The end of Christ's incarnation, death, and resur- 
rection was to prepare and form an holy nature and 
frame for us in Himself^ to be communicated to us iy 
13 



194 LIKE CHRIST: 

unmi and fellowship with Him ; and not to enable 
us to produce in ourselves the first originals of such 
an holy nature by our own endeavours. 

*1. By His incar7iation there was a roan created in 
a new holy frame, after the holiness of the first 
Adam's frame had been marred and abolished by the 
first transgression ; and ihh neio J^rame^2i^ i?iv more 
excellent than ever the first Adam's was, because man 
was really joined to God by a close, inseparable union 
of the divine and human nature in one person — 
Christ; so that these natures had communion each 
with other in their actings, and Christ w^as able to act 
in His human nature by power proper to the divine 
nature, wherein He was one God with the Father. 

*Why v/as it that Christ set up the fallen nature of 
man in sucli a roonderful frame of holiness^ in Iring- 
ing it to live and act ly communion with God living 
and acting in it? One great end was, that He 
wight coynmunicate this excellent frame to His seed 
that should by His Spirit be born of Him and be in 
Him as the last Adam, the quickening Spirit; that, 
as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so we 
might also bear the image of the heavenly (i Cor, xv, 
4o, Jf.9) in holiness here and in glory hereafter. Thus 
He was born Emmanuel, God with us; because the 
fulness of the Godhead tvith all holiness did first dtcell 
in Him bodily, even in His human nature^ that we 
might be filled with that fulness in Him {Matt, i, 
28; Col, a, 9, 10). Thus He came down from 
heaven as living bread, that, as He liveth by the 
Father, so those that eat Him may live by Him [John 
vi, 51^ 57) ; by the same life of God in them that was 
first in Him. 



IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION 195 

*2. By His death He freed Himself from the guilt 
of our sins imputed to Him, and from all that inno- 
cent weakness of human nature which He had borne 
for a time for our sakes. And, by freeing Himself, 
he prepared a freedom for us from our own natural 
condition; which is both weak as His was, and also 
polluted with our guilt and sinful corruption. Thus 
the corrupt natural state which is called in Scripture 
the "old man'* was crucified together wuth Christ, 
that the body of sin might be destroyed. And it is 
destroyed in us, not by any wounds which we our- 
selves can give it, but by our partaking of that free- 
dom from it, and death unto it, that is already 
wrought out for us by the death of Christ; as is sig- 
nified by our baptism, wherein we are buried with 
Christ by the application of His death to us {Rom. 
vi. 2, S, ^ 10, 11). 

'God " sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh for sin (or 'by a sacrifice for sin,' as in the mar- 
gin) condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous- 
ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the spirit" {Rom. viii. S, 4)- 
Observe here, that though Christ died that we might 
be justified by the righteousness of God and of faith, 
not by our own righteousness, which is of the law 
(Rom. X. 4.-6; Phil. Hi. 9), yet He died also, that the 
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, and 
that by walking after His Spirit, as those that are in 
Christ {Rom, viii. Ji). He is resembled in His death 
to a corn, of wheat dying in the earth that it may 
propagate its own nature by bringiiig forth much 
fruit {John xii. 2Jf) ; to the passover that was slain 
that a feast might be kept upon it; and to bread 



196 LIKE CHRIST: 

broken that it may be nourishment to those that eat 
it (i Cor. V, 7, 8 and xi. 2Ji) ; to the rock smitten 
that water might gush out of it for us to drink 
{1 Cor. X. Ji). 

'He died that He might make of Jew and Gentile 
one new man in Himself (Eph, ii, 15); and that He 
might see His seed, i.e., such as derive their holy na- 
ture from Him (Jsa. liii, 10). Let these Scriptures 
be well observed, and they will sufficiently evidence 
that Christ died, not that we might be able to form 
an holy nature in ourselves, but that we might re- 
ceive one ready ^prepared and formed in Christ for us^ 
by union and fellowship with Him. 

'3. By His resurrection He took possession of spir- 
itual life for us, as now fully procured for us, and 
made to be our right and property by the merit of 
His death, and therefore we are said to be quickened 
together with Christ. His resurrection was our resur- 
rection to the life of holiness, as Adam's fall was our 
fall into spiritual death. And we are not ourselves 
the first makers and formers of our new holy nature, 
any more than of our original corruption, but both 
are formed ready for us to partahe of them. And, by 
union with Christ, we partahe of that spiritual life 
that He tooTc possession of for us at His resurrection, 
and thereby we are enabled to bring forth the fruits 
of it ; as the Scripture showeth by the similitude of a 
marriage union, Rom: vii, 4- "We are married to 
Him that is raised from the dead, that we might 
bring forth fruit unto God.'* ' 



CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH, 197 



TWENTY-FOURTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

BEING MADE CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH. 

* That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrec- 
tion, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made con- 
formable to His death. '-—Phil. iii. 10. 

WE know that the death of Christ was the death of 
the cross. We know that that death of the 
cross is His chief glory. Without that death He 
would not be the Christ. The distinguishing char- 
acteristic, the one mark by which He is separated 
here in earth and in heaven, from all other persons, 
both in the Divine Being and in God's universe, is 
this one: He is the Crucified Son of God. Of all the 
articles of conformity, this inust necessarily be the 
chief and most glorious one — conformity to His 
death. 

This is what made it so attractive to Paul. What 
were Christ's glory and blessedness must be his glory 
too: he knows that the most intimate likeness to 
Christ is conformity to His death. What that death 
had been to Christ it would be to him, as he grew 
conformed to it. 



1^ LIKE CHRIST: 

Christ's death on the cross had been the end of sin. 
During His life it could tempt Him: when He dieu 
on the cross, He died to sin; it could no more reach 
Him. Conformity to Christ's death is the power to 
keep us from the power of sin. As I by the grace of 
the Holy Spirit am kept in my position as crucified 
^vith Christ, and live out my crucifixion life as the 
Crucified One lives it in me, I am kept from sinning. 

Christ's death on the cross was to the Father a 
sweet-smelling sacrifice, infinitely pleasing. Oh, if I 
want to dwell in the favour and love of the Father, 
and be His delight, I am sure there is nothing gives 
such deep and perfect access to it as being conform- 
able to Christ's death. There is nothing in the uni- 
verse to the Father so beautiful, so holy, so heavenly, 
so wonderful as this sight, the Crucified Jesus. And 
the closer I can get to Him, and the liker, the more 
conformed to His death I can become, the more surely 
shall I enter into the very bosom of His love. 

Christ's death on the cross was the entrance to the 
power of the resurrection life, the unchanging life of 
eternity. In our spiritual life we often have to 
mourn the breaks, and failures, and intervals that 
prove to us that there is still something wanting 
that prevents the resurrection life asserting its full 
power. The secret is here: there is still some subtle 
self-life that has not yet been brought into the per- 
fect conformity of Christ's death. We can be sure 



CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH, 199 

of it, nothiDg is needed but a fuller entrance into the 
fellowship of the cross to make us to the full partak- 
ers of the resurrection joy. 

Above all, it was Christ's death on the cross that 
made Hira the life of the world, gave Him the power 
to bless and to save {John xii, ^^, 2S), In the conform- 
ity to Christ's death there is an end of self: we give 
up ourselves to live and die for others; we are full of 
the faith that our surrender of ourselves to bear the 
sin of others is accepted of the Father. Out of 
this death we rise, with the power to love and to 
bless. 

And now, what is this conformity to the death of 
the cross that brings such blessings, and wherein does 
it consist? We see it in Jesus. The cross means 
entire self-abnegation. The cross means the death of 
self, — the utter surrender of our own will and our life 
to be lost in the will of God, to let God's will do with 
us what it pleases. This was what the cross meant to 
Jesus. It cost Him a terrible struggle before He 
could give Himself up to it. When He was sore 
amazed and very heavy, and His soul exceeding sor- 
rowful unto death, it was because His whole being 
shrank back from that cross and its curse. Three 
times He had to pray before He could fully say, ^Not 
my will, but Thine be dene.' But He did say it. 
And His giving Himself up to the cross is to say: 
Let me do anything, rather than that God's will 



200 LIKE CHRIST: 

should not be done. I give up everything, — only 
God's will must be done. 

And this is being made conformable to Christ's 
death, that we so give away ourselves and our whole 
life, with its power of willing and acting, to God, 
that we learn to be and work, and do nothing but 
what God reveals to us as His will. And such a life 
is called conformity to the death of Christ, not only 
because it is somewhat similar to His, but because it 
is Himself by His Holy Spirit just repeating and act- 
ing over again in us the life that animated Him in 
His crucifixion. Were it not for this, the very thought 
of such conformity would be akin to blasphemy. 

But now it is not so. In the power of the Holy 
Spirit, as the Spirit of the Crucified Jesus, the be- 
liever knows that the blessed resurrection life has its 
power and its glory from its being a crucifixion life, 
begotten from the cross. He yields himself to it, he 
believes that it has possession of him. Eealizing that 
he himself has not the power to think or do anything 
that is good or holy; nay, that the power of the flesh 
asserts itself and defiles everything that is in him, he 
yields and holds every power of his being as far as 
his disposal of them goes in the place of crucifixion 
and condemnation. And so he yields and holds 
every power of his being, every faculty of body, soul, 
and spirit, at the disposal of Jesus. The distrust and 
denial of self in everything, the trust of Jesus in 



CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH, 201 

everything, mark his life. The very spirit of the 
cross breathes through his whole being. 

And so far is it from being, as might appear, a 
matter of painful strain and weary eflEort thus to 
maintain the crucifixion position, to one who knows 
Christ in the power of His resurrection — for Paul 
puts this first — and so is made conformed to His 
death, it is rest and strength and victory. Because 
it is not the dead cross, not self's self-denial, not a 
work in his own strength, that he has to do with, but 
the living Jesus, in whom the crucifixion is an ac- 
complished thing, already passed into the life of resur- 
rection. * I have been crucified with Christ: Christ 
liveth in me;' this it is that gives the courage and 
the desire for an ever-growing, ever deeper entrance 
into most perfect conformity with His death. 

And how is this blessed conformity to be attained? 
Paul will give us the answer. * What things ivere gain 
to me^ these I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubt- 
less, I count all things but loss for the excellency of 
the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, that I may 
know Him, being made conformed to His death.' 
The pearl is of great price; but oh! it is worth the 
purchase. Let us give up all, yes, all, to be ad- 
mitted by Jesus to a place with Him on the cross. 

And if it appear hard to give up all, and then as 
our reward only have a whole life-time on the cross, 
oh let us listen again to Paul as he tells us what made 



203 LIKE CHRIST: 

him so willingly give up all, and so intently choose 
the cross. It was Jesus — Christ Jesus, my Lord. 
The cross was the place where he could get into fullest 
union with his Lord. To know Him^ to win Hi7n^ 
to be found in Him^ to be made like to Him^ — this 
was the burning passion that made it easy to cast 
away all, that gave the cross such mighty attractive 
power. Anything to come nearer to Jesus. All for 
Jesus, was his motto. It contains the twofold an- 
swer to the question. How to attain this conformity 
to Christ's death? The one is. Cast out all. The 
other, And let Jesus- come in. All for Jesus. 

Yes, it is only knowing Jesus that can make the 
conformity to His death at all possible. But let the 
soul win Him, and be found in Him, and know Him 
in the power of the resurrection, and it becomes more 
than possible, a blessed reality. Therefore, beloved 
follower of Jesus, look to Him, look to Him, the 
Crucified One. Gaze on Him until thy soul has 
learnt to say: my Lord, I must be like Thee. 
Gaze until thou hast seen how He Himself, the Cru- 
cified One, in His ever present omnipotence, draws 
nigh to live in thee and breathe through thy being 
His crucifixion life. It was through the Eternal 
Spirit that He ofEered Himself unto God; that Spirit 
brings and imparts all that that death on the cross 
is, and means, and effected, to thee as thy life. By 
that Holy Spirit Jesus Himself maintains in each 



CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH. 203 

60ul, who can trust Him for it, the power of the cross 
as an abiding death to sin and self, and a never-ceas- 
ing source of resurrection life and power. Therefore, 
once again, look to Him, the Living Crucified Jesus. 
But remember, above all, that while thou hast to 
seek the best and the highest with all thy might, the 
full blessing comes not as the fruit of thy efforts, but 
unsought, a free gift to whom it is given from above. 
It is as it pleases the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself, 
that we are made conformable to His death. There- 
fore seek and get it from Himself. » 

Lord, such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 
it is high, I cannot attain to it. To know Thee in 
the power of Thy resurrection, and to be made con- 
formable to Thy death: these are of the things which 
are hid from the wise and prudent, and are revealed 
unto babes, unto those elect souls alone to whom it is 
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. 

my Lord! I see more than ever what utter 
folly it is to think of likeness to Thee as an attain- 
ment through my effort. I cast myself on Thy mercy : 
look upon me according to the greatness of Thy lov- 
ing-kindness: and of Thy free favour reveal Thyself 
to me. If Thou wilt be pleased to come forth from 
Thy heavenly dwelling-place, and to draw nigh to 
me, and to prepare me, and take me up into the full 
fellowship of Thy life and death, my Lord, then 



204 LIKE CHRIST: 

will I live and die for Thee, and the souls Thou hast 
died to save. 

Blessed Saviour! I know Thou art willing. Thy 
love to each of Thy redeemed ones is infinite. 
teach me, draw me to give up all for Thee, and take 
eternal possession of me for Thyself. And oh ! let 
some measure of conformity to Thy death, in its self- 
sacrifice for the perishing, be the mark of my life. 
Amen. 



GIVING HIS LIFE FOR MEN, 205 



TWENTY-FIFTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

GIVING HIS LIFE FOR MEN. 

' Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 
servant ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
be your slave : even as the Son of man came not to be min- 
istered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom 
for many. '—Matt. xx. 26, 27, 28. 

'Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life 
for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. * 
—1 John iii. 16. 

IN speaking of the likeness of Christ's death, and 
of being made conformable to it, of bearing the 
cross and being crucified with Him, there is one 
danger to which even the earnest believer is exposed, 
and that is of seeking after these blessings for his 
own sake, or, as he thinks, for the glory of God in 
his own personal perfection. The error would be a 
fatal one: he would never attain the close conform- 
ity to Jesus' death he hoped for: for he would be 
leaving out just that which is the essential element 
in the death of Jesus, and in the self-sacrifice it in- 
culcates: that characteristic is its absolute unselfish- 
ness, its reference to others. To be made conform- 



206 LIKE CHRIST: 

able to Christ's death implies a dying to self, a losing 
sight of self altogether in giving np and laying down 
our life for others. To the question, how far we are;, 
to go in living for, in loving, in serving, in saving 
men, the Scriptures do not hesitate to give the un- 
equivocal answer: We are to go as far as Jesus, even 
to the laying down of our life. We are to consider 
this so entirely as the object for which we are re- 
deemed and are left in the world, the one object for 
which we live, that the laying down of the life in 
death follows as a matter of course. Like Christ, 
the only thing that keeps ns in this world is to be 
the glory of God in the salvation of sinners. Scrip- 
ture does not hesitate to say that it is in His path of 
suffering, as He goes to work out atonement and 
redemption, that we are to follow Him.* 

How clearly this comes out in the words of the 
Master Himself : 'Whoever will be 'chief among you, 
let him be your bond-servant, eyeis" as the Son of 
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give His life a ransom for many.' The 
highest in glory will be he who was lowest in service, 
and likest to the Master in His giving His life a 

* Compare Matt. xx. 28 with Eph. v. 2, 25, 26; Phil. ii. 
5-8 ; 1 Pet. ii. 21-23, and note how distinctly it is in con- 
nection with His redemptive work that Christ is set before 
us as our example : the giving His life away for others is 
its special significance. 



GIVING HIS LIFE FOR MEN, 207 

ransom. And so again, a few days later, after hav- 
ing spoken of His own death in the words: 'The 
hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but 
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit;' He at once 
applied to His disciples what He had said by repeat- 
ing what they had already heard spoken to them- 
selves, 'He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he 
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto 
life eternal.' The corn of wheat dying to rise 
again, losing its life to regain it multiplied manifold, 
is clearly set forth as the emblem not only of the 
Master but of each one of His followers. Loving 
life, refusing to die, means remaining alone in sel- 
fishness: losing life to bring forth much fruit in, 
others is the only way to keep it for ourselves. Theref^' 
is no way to find our life but as Jesus did, in giving 
it up for the salvation of others. Herein is the 
Father, herein shall we be glorified. The deepest 
underlying thought of conformity to Christ's death 
is, giving our life to God for saving others. With- 
out this, the longing for conformity to that death 
is in danger of being a refined selfishness. 

How remarkable the exhibition we have in the 
Apostle Paul of this spirit, and how instructive the 
words in which the Holy Spirit in him expressed to 
us its meaning! To the Corinthians he says: 'Al- 



208 LIKE CHRIST: 

Tvays bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus, 
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in 
our body. For we which live are always delivered 
to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus 
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So 
then death ivorheth in us^ but life in you.'^ 'Though 
He VMS crucified through lueahness^ yet He liveth 
by the power of God. For lue also are iveak in Hiniy 
but we shall live with Him by the power of God 
TOWARD you' {2 Cor. iv. 10-12; xiii, Ji), 'I now 
rejoice in my sufferings for you^ and fill up that 
w'hich is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my 
flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church' 
{Col. i, 2]i), These passages teach us how the vica- 
rious element of the suffering that Christ bore in His 
body on the tree, to a certain extent still character- 
izes the sufferings of His body the Church. Be- 
lievers who give themselves up to bear the burden 
of the sins of men before the Lord, who suffer re- 
proach and shame, weariness and pain, in the effort 
to win souls, are filling up that which is lacking of 
the afflictions of Christ in their flesh. The power 
and the fellowship of His suffering and death work 
in them, the power of Christ's life through them in 
those for whom they labour in love. There is no 
doubt that in the fellowship of His sufferings, and 
the conformity of His death in Phil, iii.^ Paul had 
in view not only the inner spiritual, but also the 



GIVING HIS LIFE FOR MEN, 209 

external bodily participations in the suffering of 
Christ. 

And so it must be with each of us in some meas- 
ure. Self-sacrifice not merely for the sake of our 
own sanctification, but for the salvation of our fel- 
low-men, is what brings us into true fellowship with 
the Christ who gave Himself for us. 

The practical application of these thoughts is very 
simple. Let us first of all try and see the truth the 
Holy Spirit seeks to teach us. As the most essential 
thing in likeness to Christ is likeness to His death, 
so the most essential thing in likeness to His death 
is the giving up our life to win others to God. It is 
a death in which all thought of saving self is lost in 
that of saving others. Let us pray for the light of 
the Holy Ghost to show us this, until we learn to feel 
that we are in the world just as Christ was, to give 
up self, to love and serve, to live and die, 'even as 
the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.* 
Oh that God would give his people to know their 
calling that they do not belong to themselves, but to 
God and to their felloio-men ; that, even as Christ, 
they are only to live to be a blessing to the world. 

Then let us believe in the grace that is waiting to 

make our experience of this truth a reality. Let us 

believe that God accepts of our giving up of our 

whole life for His glory in the saving of others. Let 

14 



210 LIKE CHRIST: 

us believe that conformity to the death of Jesus in 
this, its very life-principle, is what the Holy Ghost 
will work out in us. Let us above all believe in 
Jesus: it is He Himself who will take up every soul 
that in full surrender yields itself to Him, into the 
full fellowship of His death, of His dying in love to 
bring forth much fruit. Yes, let us believe, and be- 
lieving seek from above, as the work and the gift of 
Jesus, likeness to Jesus in this too. 
.' And let us at once begin and act this faith. Let 
us put it into practice. Looking upon ourselves now 
as wholly given up, just like Christ, to live and die 
for God in our fellow-men, let us with new zeal ex- 
ercise the ministry of love in winning souls. As we 
wait for Christ to work out His likeness, as we trust 
the Holy Spirit to give His mind in us more per- 
fectly, let us in faith begin at once to act as followers 
of Him who only lived and died to be a blessing to 
others. -Let our love open the way to the work it has 
to do by the kindness, and gentleness, and helpful- 
ness with which it shines out on all whom we meet 
in daily life. Let it give itself to the work of inter- 
cession, land: look up to God to use us as one of His 
instruments in the answering of those prayers. Let 
us speak and work for Jesus as those who have a mis- , 
sion and a power from on high which make us sure 
of a blessing. .. Let us make soul-winning our object. 
Let us band, ourselves with the great army of reapers 



GIVING HIS LIFE FOR MEN. 211 

the Lord is sendiDg out into His harvest. And ere 
we thought of it, we shall find that giving our life to 
win others for God is the most blessed way of dying 
to self, of being even as the Son of man was, a servant 
and a Saviour of the lost. 

most wonderful and inconceivably blessed like- 
ness to Christ! He gave Himself to men, but could 
not really reach them, until, giving Himself a sacri- 
fice to God for them, the seed-corn died, the life was 
poured out; then the blessing flowed forth in mighty 
power. I may seek to love and serve men ; I can only 
really influence and bless them as I yield myself unto 
God and give up my life into His hands for them; as 
I lose myself as an offering on the altar, I become in 
His spirit and power in very deed a blessing. My 
spirit given into His hands, He can use and bless me. 

most blessed God ! dost Thou in very deed ask 
me to come and give myself, my very life, wholly, 
even unto the death, to Thee for my fellow-men? If 
I have heard the words of the Master aright. Thou 
dost indeed seek nothing less. 

OGod! wilt Thou indeed have me? Wilt Thou 
in very deed in Christ permit me, like Him, as a 
member of His body, to live and die for those around 
me? to lay myself, I say it in deep reverence, beside 
Him on the altar of death, crucified with Him, and 
be a livino^ sacrifice to Thee for men? Lord! I do 



212 LIKE CHRIST: 

praise Thee for this most wonderful grace. And now 
I come, Lord God! and give myself. Oh for the 
grace of Thy Holy Spirit to make the transaction 
definite and real! Lord! here I am, given up to 
Thee, to live only for those whom Thou art seeking 
to save. 

Blessed Jesus! come Thyself, and breathe Thine 
own mind and love within me. Take possession of 
me, my thoughts to think, my heart to feel, my 
powers to work, my life to live, as given away to God 
for men. Write it in my heart: it is done, I am 
given away to God, He has taken me. Keep Thou 
me each day as in His hands, expecting and assured 
that He will use me. On Thy giving up Thyself fol- 
lowed the life in power, the outbreaking of the bless- 
ing in fulness and power. It will be so in Thy people 
too. Glory be to Thy name. Amen. 



IN HIS MEEKNESS. 213 



TWENTY-SIXTH D^Y. 



LIKE CHEIST 

IN HIS MEEKNESS. 

'Behold, thy King Cometh, meek.' — Matt. xxi. 5. 
* Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye 
shall iBnd rest for your souls. '—Matt. xi. 29. 

IT is on His way to the cross that we find the first 
of these two words written of our Lord Jesus. It 
is in His sufferings that the meekness of Jesus is 
specially manifested. Follower of Jesus ! who art so 
ready to take Thy place under the shadow of His 
cross, there to behold the Lamb slain for thy sins, is 
it not a precious thought, that there is one part of 
His work, as the suffering Lamb of God, in which 
Thou mayest bear His image and be like Him every 
day? thou canst be meek and gentle even as He was. 
Meekness is the opposite of all that is hard or bitter 
or sharp. It has reference to the disposition which 
animates us towards our inferiors. 'With meekness,' 
ministers must instruct those that oppose themselves, 
teach and bring back the erring {GaL vi. 1 ; 2 Tim, 
a, 25) . It expresses our disposition towards superiors : 
we must 'receive the word with meekness' {Jas, i. 21); 



214 LIKE CHRIST: 

if the wife is to be in subjection to her husband, it 
must be in a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the 
sight of God of great price {1 Pet, in.). As one of 
the fruits of the Spirit, meekness ought to character- 
ize all our daily intercourse with fellow-Christians, 
and extend to all with whom we have to do {Eph. iv, 
2 ; Gal. v. 22 ; Col in, 12; Tit. Hi. 2). It is men- 
tioned in Scripture along with humility, because that 
is the inward disposition concerning oneself, out of 
which meekness towards others springs. 

There is perhaps none of the lovely virtues which 
adorn the image of God's Son, which is more seldom 
seen in those who ought to be examples. There are 
many servants of Jesus, in whom much love to souls, 
much service for the salvation of others, and much 
zeal for God's will, are visible, and yet who continu- 
ally come short in this. How often, when ofEence 
comes unexpectedly, whether at home or abroad, they 
are carried away by temper and anger, and have to 
confess that they have lost the perfect rest of soul in 
God! There is no virtue, perhaps, for which some 
liave prayed more earnestly: they feel they would 
give anything, if in their intercourse with partner, 
or children, or servants, in company or in busi- 
ness, they could always keep their temper per- 
fectly, and exhibit the meekness and gentleness 
of Christ. Unspeakable is the grief and disappoint- 
ment experienced by those who have learnt to long 



IN HIS MEEKNESS. 215 

for it, and yet have not discovered where the secret 
of meekness lies. 

The self-command needed for this seems to some so 
impossible, that they seek comfort in the belief that 
this blessing belongs to a certain natural tempera- 
ment, and is too contrary to their character for them 
ever to expect it. To satisfy themselves they find all 
sorts of excuses. They do not mean it so ill: though 
the tongue or the temper be shari3, there is still love 
in their hearts: it would not be good to be too gen- 
tle; evil would be strengthened by it. And thus the 
call to entire conformity to the holy gentleness of the 
Lamb of God is robbed of all its power. And the 
world is strengthened in its belief, that Christians are 
after all not very much different from other people, 
because, though they do indeed say, they do not show, 
that Christ changes the heart and life after His own 
image. And the soul suffers itself, and causes un- 
speakable harm in Christ's Church, through its un- 
faithfulness in appropriating this blessing of salva- 
tion: the bearing the image and likeness of God. 

This grace is of great price in the sight of God. 
In the Old Testament there are many glorious prom- 
ises for the meek, which were by Jesus gathered up 
into this one, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall 
inherit the earth' (see Ps. xxv. 9; Ixxvi, 9; Prov. 
in. SJf,; Jer. it. 3). In the New Testament, its praise 
consists in this, that it is His meekness that gives its 



216 LIKE CHRIST: 

snpernatnral incomparable beauty to the image of 
our Lord. A meek spirit is of great price in God's 
sight; it is the choicest ornament of the Beloved Son. 
The Father could surely offer no higher inducement 
to His children, to seek it above all things. 

For every one Tvho longs to jiossess this spirit, 
Christ's word is full of comfort and encouragement: 
'Learn of me that I am meek.' And what will it 
profit us to learn that He is meek ? Will not just the 
experience of His meekness make the discovery of our 
want of it all the more painful? What we ask, Lord, 
is that Thou shouldest teach us how 2ve may be meek. 
The answer is again : 'Learn of 7ne^ that I am meek. ' 

We are in danger of seeking meekness and the 
other graces of our Lord Jesus as gifts of which we 
must be conscious, before we practise them. This is 
not the path of faith. 'Moses knew not that his face 
shone,' he had only seen the glory of God. The soul 
that seeks to be meek, must learn that Jesus is meek. 
We must take time to gaze on His meekness, until the 
heart has received the full impression: He only is 
meek: with Him alone can meekness be found. 
When we begin to realize this, we next fix our heart 
upon the truth: This meek One is Jesus the Saviour. 
All He is, all He has, is for His redeemed ones; His 
meekness is to be communicated to us. But He does 
not impart it, by giving, as it were from Himself, 
somethino: of it awav to us. Xo! we must learn that 



IN HIS MEEKNESS. 217 

He alone is meek, and that only when He enters and 
takes possession of heart and life, He brings His 
meekness with Him. It is with the meekness of 
Jesus that we can be meek. 

We know how little He succeeded in making His 
disciples meek and lowly while on earth. It was be- 
cause He had not yet obtained the new life, and could 
not yet bestow, through His resurrection, the Holy 
Spirit. But now He can do ifc. He has been exalted 
to the power of God from thence to reign in our 
hearts, to conquer every enemy, and continue in us 
His own holy life. Jesus was our visible Example on 
earth, that we might see in Him what like the hid- 
den life is that He would give us from heaven, that 
He Himself would be within us. 

'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart:' 
without ceasing the word sounds in our ears as our 
Lord's answer to all the sad complaints of His re- 
deemed ones, as to the diflSculty of restraining tem- 
per. my brother! why is Jesus, your Jesus, your 
life, and your strength, why is He the meek and 
lowly One, if it be not to impart to you, to whom He 
so wholly belongs. His own meekness? 

Therefore, only believe! Believe that Jesus is able 
to fill your heart with His own spirit of meekness. 
Believe that Jesus Himself will, through His own 
Spirit, accomplish in you the work that you have in 
vain endeavoured to do. 'Behold! thy King 



218 LIKE CHRIST: 

COMETH TO THEE, MEEK. ' Welcome Him to dwell in 
your heart. Expect Him to reveal Himself to you. 
Everything depends on this. Learn of Him that He 
is meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to 
your soul. 

Precious Saviour, grant me now, under the over- 
shadowing of Thy Holy Spirit, to draw near unto 
Thee, and to appropriate Thy heavenly meekness as 
my life. Lord, Thou hast not shown me Thy meek- 
ness as a Moses who demands but does not give. 
Thou art Jesus who savest from all sin, giving in its 
stead Thy heavenly holiness. Lord, I claim Thy 
meekness as a part of the salvation that Thou hast 
given me. I cannot do without it. How can I 
glorify Thee if I do not possess it? Lord, I will 
learn from Thee that Thou art meek. Blessed Lord, 
teach me. And teach me that Thou art always with 
me, always in me as my life. Abiding in Thee, with 
Thee abiding in me, I have Thee the meek One to 
help me and make me like Thyself. 

holy meekness! Thou art not come down to 
earth only for a short visit, then to disappear again 
in the heavens. Thou art come to seek a home. I 
offer Thee my heart ; come and dwell in it. 

Thou blessed Lamb of God, my Saviour and Helper, 
I count on Thee. Thou wilt make Thy meekness to 
dwell in me. Through Thy indwelling Thou dost 



IN HIS MEEKNESS. 219 

conform me to Thy image. come, and as an act 
of Thy rich free grace even now, as I wait on Thee, 
reveal Thyself as my King, meek, and coming in to 
take possession of me for Thyself. 

' Precious, gentle, holy Jesus, 

Blessed Bridegroom of my heart, 
In Thy secret inner cliamber, 
Thou wilt show me what Thou art. Amen. ' 



220 LIKE CHRIST: 



TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 

* Even as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : 
abide in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall 
abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's com- 
mandments, and abide in His love. ' — John xv. 9, 10. 

OUR blessed Lord not only said, 'Abide in me,' but 
also, * Abide in my love.' Of the abiding in 
Him, the principal part is the entering into and 
dwelling and being rooted in that wonderful love 
with which He loves us and gives Himself to us. 
'Love seeketh not its own;' it always goes out of it- 
self to live and be at one with the beloved ; it ever 
opens itself and stretches its arms wide to receive and 
hold fast the object of its desire: Christ's love longs 
to possess us. The abiding in Christ is an intensely 
personal relationship, the losing ourselves in the fel- 
lowship of an Infinite Love, finding our life in the 
experience of being loved by Him, being nowhere at 
home but in His love. 

To reveal this life in His love to us in all its Di- 
vine beauty and blessedness, Jesus tells us that this 



ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 221 

love of His to us in which we are to abide, is just the 
same as the Father's love to Him in which He abides. 
Surely, if anything were needed to make the abiding 
in His love more wonderful and attractive, this ought 
to do so. *EvEK AS the Father loved me, so have I 
loved you: abide in my love.' Our life may be 
Christlike, unspeakably blessed in the consciousness 
of an Infinite Love embracing and delighting in us. 

We know how this was the secret of Christ's won- 
derful life, and His strength in prospect of death. 
At His baptism the voice was heard, the Divine mes- 
sage which the Spirit brought and unceasingly main- 
tained in living power, 'This is my Beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased.' More than once we read: 
'The Father Ipveth the Son' {John in. 35, v. 20). 
Christ speaks of it as His highest blessedness: 'That 
the world may know that Thou hast loved them, even 
as Thou hast loved me; Thou lovedst me before the 
foundation of the world;' 'That the love wherewith 
Thou lovedst me may be in them.' Just as we day by 
day walk and live in the light of the sun shining 
around us, so Jesus just lived in the light of the glory 
of the Father's love shining on Him all the day. It 
was as THE BELOVED OF GoD that He was able to do 
God's will, and finish His work. He dwelt in the 
love of the Father. 

And just so we are the beloved of Jesus. Even 
AS the Father loved Him, He loves us. And what 



222 LIKE CHRIST: 

we need is just to take time, and, shutting our eyes 
to all around as, to worship and to wait until we see 
the Infinite Love of God in all its power and glory 
streaming forth upon us through the heart of Jesus, 
seeking to make itself known, and to get complete 
possession of us, oflEering itself to us as our home and 
resting-place. Oh, if the Christian would but take 
time to let the wondrous thought fill him, 'I am 
THE BELOYED OF THE LoRD, Jesus lovcs me cYcry mo- 
ment, just as the Father loved Him,' how the faith 
would grow, that one who is loved as Christ was, 
must walk as He walked ! 

But there is a second point in the comparison. 
Not only is the Love we are to abide in like that in 
which He abode, but the way to our abiding is the 
same as His. As Son, Christ was in the Father's 
love when He came into the world; but it was only 
through obedience He could secure its continued en- 
joyment, could abide in it. Nor was this an obedi- 
ence that cost Him nothing: no, but it was in giving 
up His own will, and learning obedience by what He 
suffered, in becoming obedient unto the death, even 
the death of the cross, that He kept the Father 's 
commandments and abode in His love. 'Therefore 
doth my Father love me, lecaiise I lay down my life. 
This commandment have I received of my Father.' 
*The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always 
those things that please Him.' And having thus 



ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 223 

given us His example, and proved how surely the 
path of obedience takes us up into the presence and 
love and glory of God, He invites us to follow Him. 
'If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my 
love, EVEN AS I kept my Father's commandments, 
and abide in His love. ' 

Christlike obedience is the way to a Christlike en- 
joyment of Love Divine. How it secures our bold- 
ness of access into God's presence! 'Let us love in 
deed and in truths liereby shall we assure our hearts 
before Him.' 'Beloved! if our heart condemn us 
not, then have we confidence towards God; and what- 
soever we ask, we receive of Him, lecause we heep His 
, commandments^ and do those things that are pleasing 
in His sight.' ,How it gives us boldness before men, 
and lifts us above their approval or contempt, be- 
cause we move at God's bidding, and feel that we 
have but to obey orders! And what boldness too in 
the face of difficulty or danger! — we are doing God's 
will, and dare leave to Him all responsibility as to 
failure or success. The heart filled with the thought 
of direct and entire obedience to God alone, rises 
above the world into the will of God, into the place 
where God's love rests on him: like Christ, he has 
his abode in the love of God. 

Let us seek to learn from Christ what it means to 
have this spirit of obedience ruling our life. It im- 
plies the spirit of dependence ; the confession that 



224 LIKE CHRIST: 

we have neither the right nor the desire in anything 
to do our own will. It involves teachableness of 
spirit. Conscious of the blinding influence of tradi- 
tion, and prejudice, and habit, it takes its law not 
from men but from God Himself. Conscious of how 
little the most careful study of the Word can reveal 
God's will in its spiritual power, it seeks to be led, 
and for this end to be entirely under the rule of the 
Holy Spirit. It knows that its views of truth and 
duty are very partial and deficient, and counts on be- 
ing led by God Himself to deeper insight and higher 
attainment. 

It has marked God's word, 'If thou wilt diligently 
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do 
that which is right in His sight,' and understood 
that it is only when the commands do not come from 
conscience, or memory, or the book, but from the 
living voice of the Lord heard speaking through the 
Spirit, that the obedience will be possible and accept- 
able. It sees that it is only as a following out of 
the Father's personal directions, and as a service 
rendered to Himself, that obedience has its full 
value and brings its full blessing. Its great care is 
to live on the altar, given up to God; to keep eye 
and ear open to God for every indication of His 
blessed will. It is not content with doing right for 
its own sake: it brings everything in personal relation 
to God Himself, doing it as unto the Lord. It wants 



ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 225 

every hour and every step in life to be a fellowship 
with God. It longs in little things and daily life to 
be consciously obeying the Father, because this is 
the only way to be prepared for higher work. Its one 
desire is the glory of God in the triumph of His will: 
its one means for obtaining that desire, with all its 
heart and strength to be w^orking out that will each 
moment of the day. And its one but sufficient re- 
ward is this, it knows that through the will of God 
lies the road, opened up by Christ Himself, deeper 
into the love of God : *If ye keep my commandments, 
ye shall abide in my love.' 

Oh this blessed Christlike obedience, leading to a 
Christlike abiding in the Divine love! To attain it 
we must just study Christ more. He emptied Him- 
self, and humbled Himself, and became obedient. May 
He empty us and humble us too ! He learned obedi- 
ence in the school of God, and being made perfect, 
became the author of eternal salvation to all tliat obey 
Him, We must yield ourselves to be taught obedience 
by Him ! We just need to listen to what He has told 
us how He did nothing of Himself, but only what 
He saw and heard from the Father; how entire de- 
pendence and continual waiting on the Father was 
the root of implicit obedience, and this again the 
secret of ever-growing knowledge of the Father's 
deeper secrets. {Jolin v. 19^ 20. See Fifteenth Day.) 
God's love and man's obedience there are as the lock 
15 



226 LIKE CHRIST: 

and key fitting into each other. It is God's grace 
that has fitted the key to the lock, it is man who 
uses the key to unlock the treasures of love. 

In the light of Christ's example and words, what 
new meaning comes to God's words spoken to His 
people from of old ! *In blessing I will bless thee, and 
in multiplying I will multiply thee, because thou hast 
obeyed 7ny voice. '^ *If ye will indeed obey my voice., 
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me.' ' The Lord 
shall greatly bless thee, if thou only carefully hearlcen 
unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do 
all these commandments.' Love and obedience in- 
deed become the two great factors in the wonderful 
intercourse between God and man. The Love of 
God, giving Himself and all He has to man; the 
obedience of the believer in that Love, giving him- 
self and all he has to God. 

We have heard a good deal in these later years of 
full surrender and entire consecration, and thousands 
praise God for all the blessing He has given them 
through these words. Only let us beware that we be 
not led too much, in connection with them, to seek 
for a blessed experience to be enjoyed, or a state to 
be maintained, while the simple downright doing of 
God's will to which they point is overlooked. Let us 
take hold and use this word which God loves to use: 
obedience. *To obey is better than sacrifice:' self- 
sacrifice is nothing without, is nothing but obedi- 



ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF GOD, 227 

ence. It was the meek and lowly obedience of Christ, 
as of a servant and a son, that made His sacrifice 
such a sweet-smelling savour: it is humble, childlike 
obedience, first hearkening gently to the Father'^s 
voice, and then doing that which is right in His 
sights that will bring us the witness that we please 
Him. 

Dear reader! shall not this be our life? so simple, 
and sublime: obeying Jesus, and abiding in His Love. 

O my God! what shall I say to the wonderful in^ 
terchange between the life of heaven and the life of 
earth Thou hast set before me? Thy Son, our blessed 
Lord, has shown and proved to us how it is possible 
on this earth of ours, and how unspeakably blessed, 
for a man to live with the love of God always sur- 
rounding him, by just yielding himself to obey Thy 
voice and will. And because He is ours, our Head 
and our Life, we know that we can indeed in our 
measure live and walk as we see Him do; our souls 
every moment abiding and rejoicing in Thy Divine 
Love, because Thou acceptest our feeble keeping of 
Thy commandments for His sake. my God, it is 
indeed too wonderful, that we are called to this Christ- 
like dwelling in love through the Christlike obedience 
Thy Spirit works! 

Blessed Jesus! how can I praise Thee for coming 
and bringing such a life on earth and making me a 



328 LIKE CHRIST: 

sharer in it. my Lord ! I can only yield myself 
afresh to Thee to keep Thy commandments, as Thou 
didst keep the Father's. Lord ! only impart to me 
the secret of Thine own blessed obedience; the open 
ear, the watchful eye, the meek and lowly heart ; the 
childlike giving up of all as the beloved Son to the 
beloved Father. Saviour! fill my heart with Thy 
love; in the faith and experience of that love I will 
do it too. Yes, Lord, this only be my life: keeping 
Thy commandments, and abiding in Thy love. 
Amen. 



LED BY THE SPIRIT. 229 



TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY. 



LIKE CHEIST 

LED BY THE SPIRIT. 

' And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit^ returned 
from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. * 
— Luke iv. 1. 

• Be filled with the Spirit. '— Eph. v. 18. 

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God. '— RoM. viii. 14. 

FEOM His very birth the Lord Jesus had the Spirit 
dwelling in Him. But there were times when he 
needed special communications of the Spirit from the 
Father. Thus it was with His baptism. The de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit on Him, the baptism of the 
Spirit, given in the baptism with water, was a real 
transaction : He was filled with the Spirit. He re- 
turned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and 
experienced more manifestly than ever the leading of 
the Spirit. In the wilderness He wrestled and con- 
quered, not in His own Divine power, but as a man 
who was strengthened and led by the Holy Spirit. In 
this also 'He was in all things made like unto His 
brethren.' 



230 LIKE CHRIST: 

The other side of the truth also holds good : the 
brethren are in all things made like unto Him. They 
are called to live like Him. This is not demanded 
from them without their having the same power. 
This power is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, whom 
we have of God. Even as Jesus was filled with the 
Spirit, and then led by the Spirit, so must we be also 
filled with the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. 

More than once, in our meditations on the diflFer- 
ent traits of Christ's character, it has seemed to us 
almost impossible to be like Him. "We have lived so 
little for it: we feel so little able to live thus. Let 
us take courage in the thought: Jesus Himself could 
only live thus through the Spirit. It was after He 
was filled with the Spirit that He was led forth by 
that Spirit to the place of conflict and of victory. 
And this blessing is ours as surely as it was His: we 
may be filled with the Spirit; we may be led by the 
Spirit. Jesus, who was Himself baptized with the 
Spirit, to set us an example how to live, has ascended 
into heaven to baptize us into the likeness with Him- 
self. He who would live like Jesus must begin here: 
He must be baptized with the Spirit. What God 
demands from His children He first gives. He de- 
mands entire likeness to Christ because He will give 
us, as He did Jesus, the fulness of the Spirit. We 
must be filled with the Spirit. 

We have here the reason why the teaching of the 



LELi BY THE SPIRIT. 231 

imitation and likeness to Christ has so little promi- 
nence in the Church of Christ. Men sought in it 
their own strength, with the help of some workings 
of the Holy Spirit: they did not understand that 
nothing less was needed than being filled with the 
Spirit. No wonder that they thought that real con- 
formity to Christ could not be expected of us, be- 
cause they had mistaken thoughts about being filled 
^ith the Spirit. It was thought to be the privilege of 
^ few, and not the calling and duty of every cliild of 
God. It was not sufficiently realized that 'Be ye 
.:filled with the Spirit,' is a command to every Chris- 
tian. Only when the Church first gives the baptism 
•of the Spirit, and Jesus, as the Saviour who laptizes 
with the Spirit each one who believes in Him, their 
Tight place, only then will likeness to Christ be 
.sought after and attained. People will then under- 
;stand and acknowledge: to be like Christ we must 
be led by the same Spirit, and to be led by the Spirit 
^s He was, we must be filled with the Spirit. Noth- 
ing less than the fulness of the Spirit is absolutely 
necessary to live a truly Christian, Christlike life. 

The way to arrive at it is simple. It is Jesus who 
baptizes with the Spirit: he who comes to Him desir- 
ing it will get it. All that He requires of us is, the 
surrender of faith to receive what He gives. 

The surrender of faith. What He asks is, whether 
we are indeed in earnest to follow in His footsteps, 



232 LIKE CHRIST: 

and for this to be baptized of the Spirit. Do not 
let there be any hesitation as to our answer. First, 
look back on all the glorious promises of His love 
and of His Spirit, in which the blessed privilege is 
set forth: Even as I, ye also. Eemember that it 
was of this likeness to Himself in everything He said 
to the Father: 'The glory which Thou gavest me 
have I given them.' Think how the love of Christ 
and the true desire to please Him, how the glory of 
God and the needs of the world, plead with us not 
through our sloth to despise this heavenly birthright 
of being Christlike. Acknowledge the sacred right 
of ownership Christ has in you. His blood-bought 
ones: and let nothing prevent your answering: 'Yes, 
dear Lord, as far as is allowed to a child of dust, I 
will be like Thee. I am entirely Thine; I must, 
I will, in all things bear Thy image. It is for this I 
ask to be filled with the Spirit. ' 

The surrender of faith: only this; but nothing less 
than this He demands. Let us give what He asks. 
If we yield ourselves to be like Him in all things, let 
it be in the quiet trust that He accepts, and at once 
begin in secret to make the Spirit work more might- 
ily in us. Let us believe it although we do not at 
once experience it. To be filled with the Holy Spirit, 
we must wait on our Lord in faith. We can depend 
upon it that His love desires to give us more than we 
know. Let our surrender be made in this assurance. 



LED BY THE %PIRIT, 233 

And let this surrender of faith be entire. The 
fundamental law of following Christ is this: *He who 
loses his life shall find it. ' The Holy Spirit comes 
to take away the old life, and to give in its place the 
life of Christ in you. Eenounce the old life of self- 
working and self- watching, and believe that, as the 
air you breathe renews your life every moment, so 
naturally and continually the Holy Spirit will renew 
your life. In the work of the Holy Spirit in you 
there are no breaks or interruptions: you are in the 
Spirit as your vital air: the Spirit is in you as your 
life-breath: through the Spirit God works in you 
both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. 
Oh, Christian, have a deep reverence for the work of 
the Spirit who dwells within you. Believe in God's 
power, which works in you through the Spirit, to 
conform you to Christ's life and image moment by 
moment. Be occupied with Jesus and His life, that 
life which is at the same time your example and your 
strength, in the full assurance that the Holy Spirit 
knows in deep quiet to fulfil His office of communi- 
cating Jesus to you. Eemember that the fulness of 
the Spirit ife yours in Jesus, a real gift which you ac- 
cept and hold in faith, even when there is not such 
feeling as you could wish, and on which you count to 
work in you all you need. The feeling may be weak- 
ness and fear and much trembling, and yet the speak- 
ing, and working, and living in demonstration of the 



4 

234 LIKE CHRIST: 

Spirit and of power {1 Cor, ii, S^ Jf), Live in the faith 
that the fulness of the Spirit is yourself, and that you 
will not be disappointed if, looking unto Jesus, you 
rejoice every day in the blessed trust that the care of 
your spiritual life is in the hands of the Holy Spirit 
the Comforter. Thus, with the loving presence of 
Jesus in you, the living likeness to Jesus will be seen " 
on you; the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus dwelling 
within, the likeness of the life of Christ Jesus will 
shine around. 

And if it do not appear that in thus believing and 
obeying your desires are fulfilled, remember that it 
is in the fellowship with the members of Christ's 
body, and in the full surrender to Christ's service in 
the world, that the full power of the Spirit is made 
manifest. It was when Jesus gave Himself to enter 
into full fellowship with men around Him, and like 
them to be baptized with water, that He was baptized 
with the Holy Ghost. And it was when He had 
given Himself in His second baptism of suffering, a 
sacrifice for us, that He received the Holy Spirit to 
give to us. Seek fellowship with God's children, who 
will with thee plead and believe for the baptism of 
the Spirit: the disciples received the Spirit not sin- 
gly, but when they were with one accord in one place. 
Band thyself with God's children around thee to 
work for souls; the Spirit is the power from on high 
to fit for that work : the promise will be fulfilled to 



LED BY THE SPIRIT. 235 

the believing, willing servants, who want Him not 
for their enjoyment, but for that work. Christ was 
filled with the Spirit that He might be fitted to work 
and live and die for us. Give thyself to such a Christ- 
I like living and dying for men, and thou mayest de- 
pend upon it, a Christlike baptism of the Spirit, a 
Christlike fulness of the Spirit, will be thy portion. 

Blessed Lord! how wondrously Thou hast provided 
for our growing likeness to Thyself, in giving us 
Thine own Holy Spirit. Thou hast told us that it is 
His work to reveal Thee, to give us Thy Eeal Pres- 
ence within us. It is by Him that all Thou hast 
won for us, all the life and holiness and strength we 
see in Thee, is brouglit over and imparted and made 
our very own. He takes of Thine, and shows it to 
us, and makes it ours. Blessed Jesus! we do thank 
Thee for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

And now, we beseech Thee, fill us, oh fill us full, 
with Thy Holy Ghost! Lord! nothing less is suffi- 
cient. We cannot be led like Thee, we cannot fight 
and conquer like Thee, we cannot love and serve like 
Thee, we cannot live and die like Thee, unless like 
Thee we are full of the Holy Ghost. Blessed, blessed 
be Thy name! Thou hast commanded. Thou hast 
promised it; it may, it can, it shall be. 

Holy Saviour! draw Thy disciples together to wait 
and plead for this. Let their eyes be opened to see 



236 LIKE CHRIST: 

the wondrous unfulfilled promises of floods of the 
Holy Spirit. Let their hearts be drawn to give them- 
selves, like Thee, to live and die for men. And we 
know it will be Thy delight to fulfil Thine oflBce, as 
He that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 
Glory be to Thy Name. Amen. 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 237 



TWENTY-NINTH DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

m HIS LIFE THROUaH THE FATHER. 

* Even as 1 live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even 
he shall live by me. ' — John vi. 57. 

EVEEY contemplation of a walk in the footsteps 
of Christ, and in His likeness, reveals anew the 
need of fixing the eye on the deep living union 
between the Forerunner and His followers. Like 
Christ: the longer we meditate on the word, the more 
we realize how impossible is it without that other: 
in Christ. The outward likeness can only be the 
manifestation of a living inward union. To do the 
same works as Christ, I must have the same life. 
The more earnestly I take Him for my example, the 
more I am driven to Him as my Head. Only an inner 
life essentially like His, can lead us to a visible walk 
like His. 

AVhat a blessed word we have here, to assure us 
that His life on earth and ours are really like each 
other: 'Even as I live by the Father, so he that eateth 
me, even he shall live by me.' If you desire to un- 
derstand your life in Christ, what he will be for you 



238 LIKE CHRIST: 

and how He will work in you, yon have only to con- 
template what the Father was for Him, and how He 
worked in Him. Christ's life in and through the 
Father is the image and the measure of what your 
life in and through the Son may be. Let us medi- 
tate on this. 

As Christ's life was a life hidden in God in heaven^ 
so must ours be. When He emptied Himself of His 
Divine glory, He laid aside the free use of His Divine 
attributes. He needed thus as a man to live by faith ; 
He needed to wait on the Father for such communi- 
cations of wisdom and power, as it pleased the Father 
to impart to Him. He was entirely dependent on the 
Father; His life was hid in God. Not in virtue of 
His own independent Godhead, but through the op- 
erations of the Holy Spirit, He spoke and acted as 
the Father from time to time taught Him. 

Exactly so, believer, must your life be hid with 
Christ in God. Let this encourage you. Christ calls 
you to a life of faith and dependence, because it is 
the life He Himself led. He has tried it and proved 
its blessedness; He is willing now to live over again 
His life in you, to teach you also to live in no other 
way. He knew that the Father was His life, and 
that he lived through the Father, and that the Father 
supplied His need moment by moment. And now 
He assures you that as He lived through the Father, 
even so you shall live through Him. Take this assur- 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 239 

ance in faith. Let your heart be filled with the 
thought of the blessedness of this fulness of life, 
which is prepared for you in Christ, and will be abun- 
dantly supplied as you need it. Do not think any 
more of your spiritual life, as something that you 
must watch over and nourish with care and anxiety. 
Kejoice every day that you need not live on your own 
strength, but in your Lord Jesus, even as He lived 
through His Father. 

Even as Christ's life was a life of Divine potver^ 
although a life of dependence, so ours tvill also be. 
He never repented having laid aside His glory, to live 
before God as a man upon earth. The Father never 
disappointed His confidence. He gave Him all He 
needed to accomplish His work. Christ experienced 
that blessed as it was to be like God in heaven^ and to 
dwell in the enjoyment of Divine perfection, it was no 
less blessed to live in the relation of entire depend- 
ence on earth, and to receive everything day by day 
from His hands. 

Believer, if you will have it so, your life can be 
the same. The Divine power of the Lord Jesus will 
work in and through us. Do not think that your 
earthly circumstances make a holy life to God's glory 
impossible. It was just to manifest, in the midst of 
earthly surroundings which were even more difficult, 
the Divine life, that Christ came and lived on earth. 
As He lived so blessed an earthly life through the 



240 LIKE CHRIST: 

Father, so may ye also live your earthly life through 
Him. Only cultivate large expectations of what the 
Lord will do for you. Let it be your sole desire to 
attain to an entire union with Him. It is impossible 
to say what the Lord Jesus would do for a soul tvho 
is truly willi^ig to live as entirely through Him as 
He is through the Father, Because just as He lived 
through the Father, and the Father made that life 
with all its work so glorious, so will you experience 
in all your work how entirely He has undertaken to 
work all in you. 

As the life of Christ was the maiiifestation of His 
real union with the Father^ so ours also, Christ says, 
*Even as the Father has sent me, and I live by the 
Father.' When the Father desired to manifest Him- 
self on earth in His love. He could entrust that work 
to no one else than His beloved Son, who was one 
with Him. It was because He was Son that the 
Father sent Him : it was because the Father had sent 
Him that it could not be otherwise, but He must care 
for His life. In the union upon which the mission 
rested, rested the blessed certainty that Jesus would 
live on earth through the Father. 

*Even so,' Christ said, 'He that eateth me, liveth 
by me.' He had said before, 'He that eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I 
in Him. ' In death He had given His flesh and blood 
for the life of the world ; through faith the soul par- 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 241 

takes of the power of His death and resurrection, and 
receives its rights to His life, as He had a right to 
His Father's life. In the words, 'Whosoever eateth 
Me,' is expressed the intimate union and unbroken 
communion with the Lord Jesus, which is the power 
of a life in Him. The one great work for the soul, 
who truly longs to live entirely and only by Christ, is to 
eat Him, daily to feed on Him, to make Him his own.* 
To attain this, seek continually to have your heart 
filled with a believing and lively assurance that all 
Christ's fulness of life is truly yours. Eejoice in 
the contemplation of His humanity in heaven, and 
the wonderful provision God has made through the 
Holy Spirit for the communication of this life of 
your Head in heaven, to flow unbroken and unhin- 
dered down upon you. Thank God unceasingly for 
the redemption in which He opened the way to the 
life of God, and for the wonderful life now provided 
for you in the Son. Offer yourself unreservedly to 
Him with an open heart and consecrated life that 
seeks His service alone. In such trust and consecra- 
tion of faith, in the outpouring of love and cultiva- 
tion of communion, with His words abiding in you, 
let Jesus be your daily food. He who eateth me 
shall live by me: even as the Father has sent me, and 
I live by the Father. 

* For the application of our text to the Lord's Supper, 
see Note. 

16 



242 LIKE CHRIST: 

Beloved Christian! what think you? Does not the 
imitation of Christ begin to seem possible in the light 
of this proviso? He who lives through Christ can 
also live like Him. Therefore let this wonderful life 
of Christ on earth through the Father be the object 
of our adoring contemplation, until our whole heart 
understands and accepts the word, 'Even so, He who 
eateth me shall live through me.' Then we shall dis- 
miss all care and anxiety, because the same Christ 
who set us the example works in us from heaven that 
life which can live out the example. And our life 
will become a continual song : To Him who lives in 
as, in order that we may live like Him, be the love 
and praise of our hearts. Amen. 

my God! how shall I thank Thee for this won- 
derful grace ! Thy Son became man to teach us the 
blessedness of a life of human dependence on the 
Father; He lived through the Father. It has been 
given us to see in Him how the Divine life can live 
and work, and conquer on earth. And now He is 
ascended into heaven, and has all power to let that 
life work in us, we are called to live even as He did 
on earth: we live through Him. God, praised be 
Thy name for this unspeakable grace. 

Lord, my God, hear the prayer that I now offer 
to Thee. If it may be, show me more, much more 
of Christ's life through the Father. I need to know 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 243 

it, my God, if I am to live as He did ! Oh, give 
me the spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of Him. 
Then shall I know what I may expect from Him, 
what I can do through Him. It will then no longer 
be a struggle and an effort to live according to Thy 
will, and His example. Because I shall then know 
that His blessed life on earth is now mine, according 
to the word, 'Even as I through the Father, so ye 
through me. ' Then shall I daily feed upon Christ 
in the joyful experience: I live through Him. my 
Father! grant this in full measure for His name's 
sake. Amen. 

NOTE. 

Though these words of our Lord Jesus in the sixth 
of John were not spoken directly of the Lord's Sup- 
per, they are yet applicable to it, because they set 
forth that spiritual blessing of which the Holy Sup- 
per is the communication in a visible form. In eat- 
ing the bread and drinking the wine, our spiritual 
life is not only strengthened because therein the par- 
don of our sins is signified and sealed to us, but be- 
cause the Holy Spirit does indeed make us partakers 
of the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus as a 
spiritual reality. So one of our Eeformed Church 
Catechisms, the Heidelberg (Qu, 78), puts it 'What 
is it then to eat the broken body and drink the shed 
blood of Christ?' *It is not only to embrace with a 
believing heart the sufferings and death of Christ, 
and so to obtain the pardon of sin and life eternal; 
but moreover also that we are united to His sacred 



2U LIKE CHRIST: 

iody by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Ohrist 
and in ns, so that we^ though Christ be in heaven 
and we on earth, are new evtheless flesh of His flesh and 
bones of His bojies, ' 

It is known that there are in our Protestant 
Churches three views of the Lord's Supper. On the 
one hand, the Lutheran with its consubstantiation, 
teaching that the body of our Lord is so present in 
the breads that even an unbeliever eats no longer only 
bread, but the body of the Lord. On the other the 
Zwingliau view, according to which the effect of 
the Sacrament is a very impressive exhibition of the 
truth that the death of Christ is to us what wine and 
bread are to the body, and a very expressive confes- 
sion of our faith in this truth, and so of our interest 
in the blessings of that death. As the Holy Spirit 
in the Word speaks to us through the ear, so in the 
Sacrament through the eye. Midway between these 
views is that of Calvin, who strongly urges that there 
is in it a mysterious blessing, not well to be expressed 
in words; that it is not enough to speak of the life 
which the Spirit gives to our spirit through faith, 
but that there is a real communication by the Holy 
Spirit of the very flesh and blood of Jesus in heaven 
to our very body, so that in virtue of this we are 
called members of His body, and have His body in us 
as the seed of the spiritual body of resurrection. 
While avoiding, on the one hand, the sacramentarian 
view of a change in the bread, it seeks to hold fast, 
on the other, the reality of a spiritual substantial 
participation of the very body and blood of our Lord 
Jesus. 
, This is not the place to enter on this more fully. 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 245 

But I am persuaded that, when a more scriptural view 
prevails as to the relation between body and spirit^ it 
will not be thought strange to believe that without 
anything like a real presence in the bread itself, we 
are indeed fed with the very body and blood of our 
Lord Jesus. The iody of our Lord is now a spiritual 
body, transfigured and glorified into the spirit-life 
of the heavenly world, the spirit and the body in 
perfect unity and harmony, so that now the Holy 
Spirit can freely dispense and communicate that body 
as He will. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
which dwelleth in us; our bodies are members of 
Christ; our mortal bodies are even now being quick- 
ened and prepared by the indwelling Spirit for the 
resurrection {Rom. viii, 11) : why should it be thought 
strange that by the Holy Spirit the communion of the 
body of Christ, so distinctly promised, should be, not 
an Old Testarnent symbol or shadow, but a blessed 
heavenly reality? 

Calvin's words are as follows: 'I am not satisfied 
with the view of those who, while acknowledging that 
we have some kind of communion with Christ, only 
make us partakers of the Spirit, omitting all mention 
of flesh and blood.' 'In His humanity also the ful- 
ness of life resides, so that every one who communi- 
cates in His flesh and blood, at the same time enjoys 
the participation of life. TJie flesh of Christ is like 
a perennial fountain which transfuses into us the life 
flowing forth from the Godhead into itself. The 
communion of the flesh and blood of Christ is neces- 
sary to all who aspire to the Christian life. Hence 
these expressions: **The Church is 'the body of 
Christ. ' '' " Our bodies are 'the members of Christ. ' *' 



246 LIKE CHRIST: 

"We are members of His body, of His flesh acd His 
bones." What our mind does not comprehend, let 
faith receive, that the Spirit unites things separated 
by space. That sacred communion of flesh and blood 
by which Christ transfuses His life into us, just as if 
it penetrated our bones and marrow, He testifies and 
seals in the Supper, not by representing a vain or 
empty sign, but by these exerting an efficacy of the 
Spirit by which He fulfils what He promises.' *I 
willingly admit anything which helps to express the 
true and substantial communication of the body and 
blood of the Lord, as exhibited to believers under the 
sacred symbols of the Supper, understanding that 
they are not received by the imagination or the intel- 
lect merely, but are enjoyed in reality as the food of 
eternal life.' 'We say that Christ descends to us, as 
well by the external symbol as by His Spirit, that He 
may truly quicken our souls by the substance of 
His flesh and blood.' *Such is the corporal presence 
which the sacrament requires, and which we say is 
here displayed in such power and efficacy, that it 
not only gives our minds undoubted assurance of 
heavenly life, but also secures the immortality of our 
flesh.'* 

To the soul who seeks fully to live by Christ as He 
did by the Father, the sacrament is a real spiritual 
blessing, something more than what faith in the word 
gives. Let all the praying and believing and living 
in which we seek to realize the wonderful blessing of 
living just as Christ did by the Father, ever culmi- 
nate in our communion of the body and blood at the 
Lord's table. And let us go forth from each such 

*CalYin's Institutes, iv. 17, §7, 9. 10, 19, 24. 



IN HIS LIFE THROUGH THE FATHER. 247 

celebration with new confidence, that what has been 
given and confirmed on the great day of the feast, 
will by Jesus Himself be maintained in power in the 
daily life through the more ordinary channels of His 
grace — the blessed fellowship with Himself in the 
word and prayer. 



248 LIKE CHRIST: 



THIKTIETH DAY. 



LIKE CHKIST 

m GLORIFYING THE FATHER. 

* Father, the hour is come ; glorify Thy Son, that Thy 
Son also may glorify Thee. 1 have glorified Thee on the 
earth. ' — John xvii. 1, 4. 

* Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; 
so shall ye be my disciples. ' — John xv. 8. 

11HE glory of an object is, that in its sort its in- 
trinsic worth and excellence answers perfectly 
to all that is expected of it. That excellence or 
perfection may be so hidden or unknown, that the 
object has no glory to those who behold it. To 
glorify is to remove every hindrance, and so to reveal 
the full worth and perfection of the object, that its 
glory is seen and acknowledged by all. 

The highest perfection of God, and the deepest mys- 
tery of Godhead, is His holiness. In it righteous- 
ness and love are united. As the Holy One He hates 
and condemns sin. As the Holy One He also frees the 
sinner from its power, and raises Him to communion 
with Himself. His name is *The Holy One of Israel, 
thy Kedeemer.' The song of redemption is: 'Great 



IN GLOBIFYING THE FATHER. 249 

is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.' To 
the Blessed Spirit, whose special work it is to main- 
tain the fellowship of God with man. the title of 
Holy in the New Testament belongs more than to 
the Father or the Son. It is this holiness, judging 
sin and saving sinners, which is the glory of God. 
For this reason the two words are often found to- 
gether. So in the song of Moses : ' Who is like Thee, 
glorious in holiness V So in the song of the Seraphim : 
^Holy^ Holy^ Holy^ Lord God of hosts ; the whole earth 
is full of ^i^ glory, ' And so in the song of the Lamb : 
'Who shall not glorify Thy Name? for Thou only art 
Holy,'* As has been well said: 'God's glory is His 
manifested holiness; God's holiness is His hidden 
glory.' 

When Jesus came to earth, it was that He might 
glorify the Father, that He might again show forth 
in its true light and beauty that glory which sin had 
so entirely hid from man. Man himself had been 
created in the image of God, that God might lay of 
His glory upon him, to be shown forth in him — that 
God might be glorified in him. The Holy Ghost 
says, *Man is the image and glory of God.' Jesus 
came to restore man to his high destiny: He laid 
aside the glory which He had with the Father, and 
came in our weakness and humiliation, that He 
might teach us how to glorify the Father on earth. 
God's glory is perfect and infinite: man cannot con- 



250 LIKE CHRIST: 

tribute any new glory to God, above what He has: 
he can only serve as a glass in which the glory of God 
is reflected. God's holiness is His glory: as the holi- 
ness of God is seen in him, God is glorified; His 
glory as God is shown forth. 

Jesus glorified God iy obeying Him, In giving His 
commandments to Israel, God continually said, 'Be 
ye holy, for I am holy:' in keeping them they would 
be transformed into a life of harmony with Him, they 
would enter into fellowship with Him as the Holy 
One. In His conflict with sin and Satan, in His 
sacrifice of His own will, in His waiting for the 
Father's teaching, in His unquestioning obedience 
to the Word, Christ showed that He counted nothing 
worth living for, but that men might understand 
what a blessed thing it is to let this holy God really 
be God, His will alone acknowledged and obeyed. 
Because He alone is holy. His will alone should be 
done, and so His glory be shown in us. 

Jesus glorified God hy confessing Him. He not 
only in His teaching made known the message God 
bad given Him, and showed us who the Father is. 
There is something far more striking. He continu- 
ally spoke of His own personal relation to the Father. 
He did not trust to the silent influence of His holy - 
life: He wanted men distinctly to understand what 
the root and aim of that life was. Time after time 
He told them that He came as a servant sent from 



IN GLORIFYING THE FATHER. 251 

the Father, that He depended upon Him and owed 
everything to Him, that he only sought the Father's 
honor, and that all his happiness was to please the 
Father, to secure His love and favour. 

Jesus glorified God iy giving Himself for the tvork 
of His redeeming love, God's glory is His holiness, 
and God's holiness is His redeeming love: love that 
triumphs over sin by conquering the sin and rescuing 
the sinner. Jesus not only told of the Father being 
the Eighteous One, whose condemnation must rest on 
sin, and the Loving One who saves every one who turns 
from his sin, but He gave Himself to be a sacrifice 
to that righteousness, a servant to that love, even 
unto the death. It was not only in acts of obedience, 
or words of confession, that He glorified God, but in 
giving Himself to magnify the holiness of God, to 
vindicate at once His law and His love by His atone- 
ment. He gave Himself, His whole life and being, 
Himself wholly, to show how the Father loved, and 
longed to bless, how the Father must condemn the 
sin, and yet would save the sinner. He counted 
nothing too great a sacrifice. He lived and died only 
for this, that the glory of the Father, the glory of 
His holiness, of His redeeming love, might break 
through the dark veil of sin and flesh, and shine into 
the hearts of the children of men. As He Himself 
expressed it in the last week of His life, when the 
approaching anguish began to press in upon Him : 



252 LIKE CHRIST: 

*Now is my soul troubled. And what shall 'I say — 
Father, save me from this hour? But for this came I 
unto the world: Father! Glorify Thy Name.' 
And the assurance came that the sacrifice was well- 
pleasing and accepted, in the answer: 'I have both 
glorified it, and will glorify it again.' 

It was thus Jesus as man was prepared to have part 
in the glory of God : He sought it in tlie humiliation 
on earth; He found it on the throne of heaven. And 
He is become our forerunner, leading many children 
to glory: He shows us that the sure way to the glory 
of God in heaven is to live only for the glory of God 
on earth. Yes, this is the glory of a life on earth : 
glorifying God here, we are prepared to be glorified 
w^ith Him forever. 

Beloved Christian! is it not a wonderful calling, 
blessed beyond all conception, like Christ to live only 
to glorify God, to let God's glory shine in every part 
of our life? Let us take time to take in the won- 
drous thought: our daily life, down to its most ordi- 
nary acts, may be transparent with the glory of God. 
Oh ! let us study this trait as one that makes the 
wondrous image of our Jesus specially attractive to 
us: He glorified the Father. Let us listen to Him 
as He points us to the high aim, that your Father 
in heaven may he glorified^ and as He shows us the 
way. Herein is my Father glorified. Let us remember 
how He told us that, when in heaven He answers our 



IN GLORIFYING THE FATHER. 253 

prayer, this would still be His object, and let in every 
breathing of prayer and faith it be our object too: 
* That the Father may he glorifitd in the Son, ' Let our 
whole life, like Christ's, be animated by this as its 
ruling principle, growing stronger until in a holy 
enthusiasm our watchword has become: All, All to 
THE Glory of God. And let our faith hold fast the 
confidence that in the fulness of the Spirit there is 
the sure provision for our desire being fulfilled: 
*Know ye not that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Spirit, which is in you? — therefore glorify God 
in your body and in your spirit.* 

If we want to know the way, let us again study 
Jesus. He obeyed the Father. Let simple down- 
right obedience, mark our whole life. Let an hum- 
ble, childlike waiting for direction, a soldier-like 
looking for orders, a Christlike dependence on the 
Father's showing us His way, be our daily attitude. 
Let everything be done to the Lord, according to His 
will, for His glory, in direct relationship to Himself. 
Let God's glory shine out in the holiness of our life. 

He confessed the Father: He did not hesitate to 
speak often of His personal relationship and inter- 
course, just as a little child would do of an earthly 
parent. It is not enough that we live right before 
men: how can they understand, if there be no inter- 
preter? They need, not as a matter of preaching, 
but as a personal testimony, to hear that what we are 



254 LIKE CHRIST: 

and do is because we love the Father^ and are living 
for Him, The witness of the life and the words 
must go together.* 

And He gave Himself to the Father's work. So 
He glorified Him. He. showed sinners that God has 
a right to have us wholly and only for Himself, that 
God's glory alone is worth living and dying for, and 
that as we give ourselves to this, God will most won- 
derfully use and bless us in leading others to see and 
confess His glory too. It was that men might glorify 
the Father in heaven, might find their blessedness 
also in knowing and serving this glorious God, that 
Jesus lived, and that we must live too. Oh! let us 
give ourselves to God for men; let us plead, and 
work, and live, and die, that men, our fellow-men, 
may see that God is glorious in holiness, that the 
whole earth may be filled with his glory. 

Believer, ' the Spirit of God and of glory, the Spirit 
of holiness, rests upon you.' Jesus delights to do in 
you His beloved work of glorifying the Father. Fear 
not to say : my Father, in Thy Son, like Tliy Son^ 
I will only live to glorify Thee. 

my God! I do pray Thee, show me Thy glory! 
I feel deeply how utterly impossible it is, by any 
resolution or effort of mine, to lift myself up or bind 
myself to live for Thy glory alone. But if Thou wilt 

* See note. 



IN GLORIFYING THE FATHER. 255 

reveal unto me Thy glory, if Thou wilt make all Thy 
goodness pass before me, and show me how glorious 
Thou art, how there is no glory but Thine; if, my 
Father! Thou wilt let Thy glory shine into my heart, 
land take possession of my inmost being, I never will 
be able to do anything but glorify Thee, but live to 
make known what a glorious holy God Thou art. 

Lord Jesus! who didst come to earth to glorify the 
Father in our sight, and ascend to heaven leaving us 
to do it now in Thy name and stead, oh! give us by 
Thy Holy Spirit a sight of how Thou didst it. Teach 
us the meaning of Thy obedience to the Father, Thine 
acknowledgment that, at any cost, His will must be 
done. Teach us to mark Thy confession of the 
Father, and how Thou didst in personal testimony 
tell men of what He was to Thee, and what Thou 
didst feel for Him, and let our lips too tell out what 
we taste of the love of the Father, that men may 
glorify Him. And above all, oh! teach us that it is 
in saving sinners that redeeming love has its triumph 
and its joy, that it is in holiness casting out sin that 
God has His highest glory. And do Thou so take 
possession of our whole heart that we may love and 
labor, live and die, for this one thing, *Tliat every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
THE Glory of God the Fathee.' 

my Father, let the whole earth, let my heart, 
be filled with Thy glory. Amen. 



256 LIKE CHRIST: 



NOTE. 

*Let US begin by considering -what was the ground- 
work of the whole beauty and harmony of our blessed 
Saviour's character. Love to the Father was the 
ruling motive of His life. It so pervaded His nature 
as to find expression, directly or indirectly, in every 
word as well as every action. It will be well if we 
try to realize something of the perfect simplicity 
with which that love was so continually shown forth 
in daily life. 

'We especially need to remind ourselves of how 
entirely this was the case, because, in these days of 
artificial manners, and of false shame, we are so fre- 
quently tempted to conceal our true motives, and to 
think is a disgrace if we are led into any sign of be- 
traying our deepest religious feelings. We conceal 
thsm from those who would not understand them, 
lest perchance they should scorn our judgment, and 
wound our sslf-respect; and we too frequently even 
hide them from those who are of like mind with 
ourselves, lest they too might think us lacking in 
good taste. Self fears the slightest rebuke, the 
merest breath of disapproval. So long as our love to 
God is weak enough to allow of its being hidden, 
self will carefully hide it, rather than run the least 
risk of being considered deficient in discretion. 

*0f true discretion, which is quite a different 
thing, we shall find abundant examples in our 
Master's life. But that false discretion, which 
strives to divert notice, not from ourselves, but from 
the deepest principles of our conduct, and in order 
to save our own selfish feelings from being wounded, 



IN GLORIFYING THE FATHER. 257 

finds no counterpart whatever in the life of our Lord. 
In His earthly nature, as man, Christ loved the Lord 
His God with all His heart, and with all His strength. 
And this all-pervading love could not but assert itself 
continually. Our Lord simply and unhesitatingly 
referred to it as a simple fact, whenever the slightest 
occasion for doing so arose. It was His avowed object 
that the ivorld should know that He loved the Father, 
He frequently and emphatically alluded to His per- 
sonal connection loith the Father as the means by 
which He lived: it was His consciousness of that 
union which gave Him unfailing support. 

* Jesus Christ made known the Father's love; He 
was sent that He might reveal the deep blessedness of 
belonging tvholly to God, Even so are we sent, each 
one of us in the world, in order that we may make 
the Saviour known to those around us. Through our 
own intimate and personal connection with Himself, 
we are each one of us to reveal the Son, even as He 
revealed the Father. And this we can only do by 
acting as He did, by continually proving how all- 
sufficient is the sense of union with Himself, ' — From 
a chapter on the example left us by Christ, in a little 
book containing many precious thoughts, Steps on 
the Upward Path ; or, Holiness unto the Lord. By 
A. M. James. 
17 



258 LIKE CHRIST: 



THIRTY-FIRST DAY. 



LIKE CHRIST 

IN HIS GLORY. 

* We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like 
Him ; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that 
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. * 
— 1 John iii. 2, 3. 

'And I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father 
hath appointed unto me. ' — Luke xxii. 29. 

GOD'S glory is His holiness. To glorify God is to 
yield ourselves that God in us may show forth 
His glory. It is only by yielding ourselves to be holy, 
to let His holiness fill our life, that His glory can 
shine forth from us. The one work of Christ was to 
glorify the Father, to reveal what a glorious Holy 
God He is. Our one work is, like Christ's, so by 
our obedience, and testimony and life to make known 
our God as * glorious in holiness' that He may be 
glorified in heaven and earth. 

When the Lord Jesus had glorified the Father on 
earth, the Father glorified Him with Himself in 
heaven. This was not only His just reward; it was 
a necessity in the very nature of things. There is no 



IN HIS GLORY. 259 

other place for a life given up to the glory of God, 
as Christ's was, than in that glory. The law holds 
good for us too : a heart that yearns and thirsts for 
the glory of God, that is ready to live and die for it, 
becomes prepared and fitted to live in it. Living to 
God^s glory on earth is the gate to living in God'*s 
glory in heaven. If with Christ we glorify the 
Father, the Father will with Christ glorify us too. 
Yes, we shall be like Him in His glory. 

We shall be like Him in His spiritual glory^ the 
glory of His holiness. In the union of tha two words 
in the name of the Holy Spirit, we see that what is 
HOLY and what is spikitual stand in the closest con- 
nection with each other. When Jesus as man had 
glorified God by revealing, and honouring, and giving 
Himself up to His holiness, he was as man taken up 
into and made partaker of the Divine glory. 

And so it will be with us. If here on earth we 
have given ourselves to have God's glory take 
possession of us, and God's holiness, God's- Holy 
Spirit, dwell and shine in us, then our human nature 
with all our faculties, created in the likeness of God, 
sliall have poured into and transfused through it, in 
a way that passes all conception, the purity aud the 
holiness and the life, the very brightness of the glory 
of God. 

We shall be like Him in His glorified body. It has 
been well said: Embodiment is the end of the ways 



260 LIKE CHRIST: 

of God. The creation of man was to be God's master- 
piece. There had previously been spirits without 
bodies, and animated bodies without spirits, but in 
man there was to be a spirit in a body lifting up and 
spiritualizing the body into its own heavenly purity 
and perfection. Man as a whole is God's image, his 
body as much as his spirit. In Jesus a human 
body — mystery of mysteries! — is set upon the 
throne of God, is found a worthy partner and con- 
tainer of the Divine glory. Our bodies are going to 
be the objects of the most astonishing miracle of 
Divine transforming power: 'He will fashion our 
vile body like unto His glorious body, according to 
the working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself.' The glory of God as seen in 
our bodies, made like Christ's glorious body, will be 
something almost more wonderful than in our spirits. 
We are 'waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 
demption of our body.'' 

We shall be like Him in His place of honour. 
Every object must have a fit place for its glory to be 
seen. Christ's place is the central one in the uni- 
verse: the throne of God. He spake to His disciples, 
'where I am, there shall my servant be. If any man 
serve me, Mm will my Father honour, "^ 'I appoint 
you a kingdom, even as my Father hath appointed 
me; that ye may eat and drink at my table, and sit 
enthrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' To 



IN HIS GLORY. 261 

the Church at Thyatira He says: 'He that over- 
Gometh and keepeth ray words unto the end, to him 
■will I give power over the nations, even as I received 
of my Father.' And to the Church at Laodicea: 
*To him that overcometh will I grant to sit on my 
throne, eveist as I overcame, and am set down with 
my Father on His throne.' Higher and closer it 
cannot be: * Even as we have borne the image of 
the earthly, we shall also of the heavenly.' The like- 
ness will be complete and perfect. 

Such Divine God-given glimpses into the future 
reveal to us more than all our thinking, what intense 
truth, what Divine meaning there is in God's crea- 
tive word: 'Let us make man in Our image, after 
Our likeness.'. To show forth the likeness of the 
Invisible, to be partaker of the Divine Nature, to 
share with God His rule of the universe, is man's 
destiny. His place is indeed one of unspeakable 
glory. Standing between two eternities, the eternal 
purpose in which we were predestinated to be con- 
formed to the image of the first-born Son, and the 
eternal realization of that purpose when we shall be 
like Him in His glory, we hear the voice from every 
side : ye image-bearers of God ! on the way to 
share the glory of God and of Christ, live a Godlike, 
live a Christlike life ! 

'I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy like- 
ness,' so the Psalmist sung of old. Nothing can 



262 LIKE CHRIST: 

satisfy the soul but God's image, because for that it 
was created. And this not as something external to 
it, only seen but not possessed ; it is as partaker of 
that likeness that we shall be satisfied. Blessed they 
who here long for it with insatiable hunger; they 
shall be filled. This, the very likeness of God, this 
will be the glory, streaming down on them from 
God himself, streaming through their whole being, 
streaming out from them through the universe. 
*When Christ who is our life shall be manifested, we 
also shall be manifested with Him in glory.' 

Beloved fellow-Christians! nothing can be made 
manifest in that day that has not a real existence 
here in this life. If the glory of God is not our life 
here, it cannot be hereafter. It is impossible; him 
alone who glorifies God here, can God glorify here- 
after. 'Man is the image and glory of God.' It is 
as you bear the image of God here, as you live in the 
likeness of Jesus, who is the brightness of His glory, 
and the express image of His person, that you will be 
fitted for the glory to come. If we are to be as the 
image of the heavenly, the Christ in glory, we must 
first bear the image of the earthly, the Christ in hu- 
miliation. 

Child of God ! Christ is the uncreated image of 
God. Man is His created image. On the throne in 
the glory the two will be eternally one. You know 
what Christ did, how He drew near, how He sacrificed 



IN HIS GLORY, 263 

• 

all, to restore us to the possession of that image. Oh, 
shall we not at length yield ourselves to this wonder- 
ful love, to this glory inconceivable, and give our 
life wholly to manifest the likeness and the glory of 
Christ? Shall we not, like Him, make the Father's 
glory our aim and hope, living to His glory here as 
the way to live in His glory there? 

The Father\s glory : it is in this that Christ's glory 
and ours have their common origin. Let the Father 
be to us what He was to Him, and the Father's glory 
will be ours as it is His. All the traits of the life of 
Christ converge to this as their centre. He was 
Son; He lived as Son; God was to Him Father. 
As Son He sought the Father's glory; as Son He 
found it. Oh! let this be our conformity to the 
image of the Son, that the Father is the all in all 
of ounlife; the Father's glory must be our everlast- 
ing hDme. Beloved brethren! who have accom- 
panied me thus far in these meditations on the image 
of our Lord, and the Christlike life in which it is to 
be reflected, the time is now come for us to part. 
Let us do so with the word, 'We shall be like Him, 

for we shall see Him as He is. He who hath this 

1 

hope ill Him purifieth Himself, even as He is pure.' 
Like Christ! let us pray for each other, and for all 
God's children, that in ever-growing measure this 
may bejthe one aim of our faith, the one desire of 
our hectt, the one joy of our life. Oh, what will it 



264 LIKE CHRIST: 

be when we meet in the glory, when we see Him as 
He is, and see each other all like Him ! 

Ever blessed and most glorious God! what thanks 
shall we render Thee for the glorious gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God, and for the light of Thy 
glory which shines upon us in Him! And what 
thanks shall we render Thee, that in Jesus we have 
seen the image not only of Thine, but of our glory, 
the pledge of what we are to be with Thee through 
eternity ! 

God! forgive us, forgive us for Jesus' blood's 
sake, that we have so little believed this, that we 
have so little lived this. And we beseech Thee that 
Thou wouldst reveal to all who have had fello^vship 
with each other in these meditations, what the 
GLORY is in which they are to live eternally, in 
which they can be living even now, as they glorify 
Thee. Father ! awaken us and all Thy children to 
see and feel what Thy purpose with us is. Ve are 
indeed to spend eternity in Thy glory : Th j glory 
is to be around us, and on us, and in us; we are to 
be like Thy Son in His glory. Father! we leseech 
Thee, oh visit Thy Church ! Let Thy Holy Spi rit, 
the Spirit of glory, work mightily in her; md let 
this be her one desire, the one mark by whicl she is 
known : the glory of God resting upon her. Our 
Father! grant it for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 265 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

^T ET ns make man in our image, aftek our 
-L^ likeness:' in these "words of the Council of 
Creation, with which the Bible history of man opens, 
we have the revelation of the Eternal purpose to 
which man owes his existence, of the glorious 
eternal future to which he is destined. God pro- 
poses to make a godlike creature, a being who 
shall be His very image and likeness, the visible 
manifestation of the glory of the Invisible One. 

To have a being, at once created and yet Godlike, 
was indeed a task worthy of Infinite Wisdom. It is 
the nature and glory of. God that He is absolutely 
independent of all else, having life in Himself, owing 
His existence to none but Himself alone. If man is 
to be Godlike, he must bear His image and likeness 
in this too, that he must become what he is to be, of 
his own free choice; he must make himself. It is 
the nature and glory of the creature to be dependent, 
to owe everything to the Blessed Creator. How can 
the contradiction be reconciled? — a being at once 
dependent and yet self-determined, created and yet 
Godlike. In man the mystery is solved. As a 
creature God gives him life, but endows him with the 
wonderful power of a free will; it is only in the 



266 OX PEEACHIXG CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

process of a personal and voluntary appropriation 
that anything so high and holy as likeness to God can 
really become his very own. 

When sin entered, and man fell from his high 
destiny, God did not give up His purpose. Of His 
revelation in Israel the central thought was: *Be ye 
holy, as I am holy, ' Likeness to God in that which 
constitutes His highest perfection is to be Israel's 
hope. Eedemption had no higher ideal than Crea- 
tion had revealed ; it could only take up and work out 
the Eternal purpose. 

It was with this in view that the Father sent to the 
earth the Son who was the express Image of His 
person. In Him the God-likeness to which we had 
been created, and which we had personally to appro- 
priate and make our own, was revealed in human 
form: He came ta show to us at once the Image of 
God and our own image. In looking upon Him, the 
desire after our long-lost likeness to God was to be 
awakened, and that hope and faith begotten which 
gave us courage to yield ourselves to be renewed 
after that Image. To accomplish this, there was a 
twofold work He had to do. The one was to reveal 
in His life the likeness of God, so that we might know 
what a life in that likeness was, and understand what 
it was we had to expect and accept from Him as our 
Eedeemer. When He had done this, and shown us 
tfie likeness of the life of God in human form. He died 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 267 

that He might win for us, and impart to us, His 
own life as the life of the likeiiess of God^ that in its 
power we might live in the likeness of what we had 
seen in Him. And when He ascended to heaven, it 
, was to give us in the Holy Spirit the power of that 
life He had first set before us and then won to impart 
to us. 

It is easy to see how close the connection is between 
these two parts of the work of our Lord, and how 
the one depends upon the other. For what as our 
Example He had in His life revealed, He as our Ee- 
deemer by His death purchased the power. His 
earthly life showed the path. His heavenly life gives 
the power, in which we are to walk. What God hath 
joined together no man may separate. Whoever does 
not stand in the full faith of the Eedemption, has 
not the strength to follow the Example. And who- 
ever does not seek conformity to the Image as the 
great object of the Eedemption, cannot fully enter 
into its power. Christ lived on earth that He might 
show forth the image of God m His life : He lives in 
heaven that we may show forth the image of God i?i 
our lives. 

The Church of Christ has not always maintained 
the due relation of these two truths. In the Eoman 
Catholic Church the former of the two was placed in 
the foreground, and the following of Christ's example 
pressed with great earnestness. As the fruit of this, 



268 ON PEE ACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

she can point to no small number of saints who, not- 
withstanding many errors, with admirable devotion 
sought literally and entirely to bear the Master's 
image. But to the great loss of earnest souls, the 
other half of the truth was neglected, that only they 
who in the power of Christ's death receive His life 
within them, are able to imitate His life as set before 
them. 

The Protestant Churches owe their origin to the 
revival of the second truth. The truth of God's 
pardoning and quickening grace took its true place 
to the great comfort and joy of thousands of anxious 
souls. And yet here the danger of onesidedness was 
not entirely avoided. The doctrine that Christ lived 
on earth, not only to die for our redemption, but to 
show us how we were to live, did not receive sufficient 
prominence. While no orthodox Church will deny 
that Christ is our Example, the absolute ?iecessity of 
following the example of His life is not preached 
with the same distinctness as that of trusting the 
atonement of His death. Great pains are taken, and 
that most justly, to lead men to accejDt the merits of 
His death. As great pains are not taken, and this is 
what is not right, to lead men to accept the imitation 
of His life as the one mark and test of true dis- 
.cipleship. 

It is hardly necessary to point out what influence 
the mode of presenting this truth will exercise in 



I 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, 269 

the life of the Church. If atonement and pardon be 
everything, and the life in His likeness something 
secondary, that is to follow as a matter of course, the 
chief attention will be directed to the former. Par- 
don and peace will be the great objects of desire ; 
with these attained, there will be a tendency to rest 
content. If, on the other hand, conformity to the 
image of God's Son be the chief object, and the 
atonement the means to secure this end, as the fulfil- 
ment of God's purpose in creation, then in all the 
preaching of repentance and pardon, the true aim 
will ever be kept in the foreground; faith in Jesus 
and conformity to His character will be regarded as 
inseparable. Such a Church will produce real 
followers of the Lord. 

In this respect the Protestant Churches need still 
to go on unto perfection. Then only will the Church 
put on her beautiful garments, and truly shine in the 
light of God's glory, when these two truths are held 
in that wondrous unity in which they appear in the 
life of Christ Himself. In all He suffered for us ^ He 
left us an example that we should follow in His foot- 
steps. As the banner of the cross is lifted high, the 
atonement of tlie cross and the felloivsMp of the cross 
must equally be preached as the condition of true 
discipleship. 

It is remarkable how distinctly this comes out in 
the teaching of the blessed Master Himself. In fact, 



270 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

in speaking of the cross, He gives its fellowship more 
prominence than its atonement. How often He told 
the disciples that they must bear it with Him and 
like Him ; only thus could they be disciples and share 
in the blessings His cross-bearing was to win. When 
Peter rebuked Him as He spoke of His being cruci- 
jBed, He did not argue as to the need of the cross in 
the salvation of men, but simply insisted on its being 
borne, because to Him as to us the death of self is 
the only path to the life of God. The disciple must 
be as the Master. He spoke of it as the instrument 
of self-sacrifice, the mark and the means of giving 
up our own life to the death, the only path for the 
entrance upon the new Divine life He came to 
bring. It is not only I who must die, He said, 
but you too; the cross, the spirit of daily self-sac- 
rifice, is to be the badge of your allegiance to 
me. How well Peter learnt the lesson we see 
in his Epistle. Both the remarkable passages in 
which he speaks of the Saviour suffering for us — 
('Christ suffered for us; who bare our sins upon the 
tree;' 'He suffered, the just for the unjitsV) — are 
brought in almost incidentally in connection with 
our suffering like Him. He tells us that as we gaze 
upon the Crucified One, we are not only to think 
of the cross as the path in which Christ found His 
way to glory, but as that in which each of us is to 
follow Him. 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 271 

The same thought comes out with great promi- 
nence in the writings of the Apostle Paul. To take 
one Epistle, that to the Galatians; we find four 
passages in which the power of the cross is set forth. 
In one we have one of the most striking expressions 
of the blessed truth of substitution and atonement: 
* Being made a curse for us^ as it is written, Cursed is 
every one that hangeth on a tree.' This is indeed 
one of the foundation-stones on which the faith of 
the Church and the Christian rests. But a house 
needs more than foundation-stones. And so we find 
that no less than three times in the Epistle the 
fellowship of the cross, as a personal experience, is 
spoken of as the secret of the Christian life. 'I have 
been crucified with Christ.' 'They that are Christ's, 
have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.' 
'God forbid that I sliould glory save in the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world. ' That Christ bore 
the cross for us is not all; it is but the beginning of 
His work. It does but open the way to the full ex- 
hibition of what the cross can do as we are taken up 
into a lifelong fellowship with Him the Crucified 
One, and in our daily life we experience and prove 
what it is to be crucified to the world. And yet how 
many earnest and eloquent sermons have been 
preached on glorying in the cross of Christ, in which 
Christ's dying on the cross for us has been expounded^ 



^73 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

but our dying witli Him, in which Paul so gloried, 
has been forgotten ! 

The Church does indeed need to have this second 
truth sounded out as clearly as the first. Christians 
need to understand that bearing the cross does not in 
the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, 
but to that daily giving up of life, of dying to self, 
which must mark us as much as it did Jesus, which 
we need in times of prosperity almost more than in 
adversity, and without which the fulness of the bless- 
ing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us. It is the 
cross, not only as exhibited on Calvary but as gloried 
in on account of its crucifying us, its spirit breathing 
through all our life and actions, that will be to the 
Christian and the Church as it was to Christ, the 
path to victory and to glory, the power of God for 
the salvation of men. 

The Redemption of the cross consists of two parts- 
Christ bearing the cross, Christ's crucifixion for us, 
as our atonement, the opening up of the way of life; 
our crucifixion, our bearing the cross with Christ, as 
our sanctification, our walking in the path of con- 
formity to His blessed likeness. Christ the Surety 
and Christ the Example must equally be preached. 

But it will not be sufficient that these two truths 
be set forth as separate doctrines; they can exercise 
their full power only as their inner unity is found in 
the deeper truth of Christ our Head. As we see how 



ON PREAQHINQ CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, 273 

union with the Lord Jesus is the root in which the 
power of both the Surety and the Example has its 
life, and how the one Saviour makes us partakers both 
of the atonement and the fellowship of His cross, we 
shall understand how wonderful their harmony is, 
and how indispensable both are to the welfare of the 
Church. We shall see that as it is Jesus who opened 
up the way to heaven as much ly the footsteps He left 
us to tread in as by the atonement He gave us to trust 
iUy so it is the same Jesus who gives us pardon 
through His blood, and conformity to Himself 
through His spirit. And we shall understand how 
for both faith is the only possible path. The life- 
power of this atonement comes through faith alone; 
the life-power of the example no less so. Our 
Evangelical Protestantism cannot fulfil its mission 
until the grand central truth of salvation by faith 
alone has been fully applied, not only to justification, 
but to sanctification too, that is, to the conformity 
to the likeness of Jesus. 

The preacher who desires in this matter to lead his 
people in the path of entire conformity to the Saviour's 
likeness, will find a very wide field indeed opened up 
to him. The Christlike life is like a tree, in which 
we distinguish the fruity the root, and the stem that 
connects the two. As in individual effort, so in the 
public ministry, the fruit will probably first attract 
attention. The words of Christ, 'Do ye even as I 
18 



274 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

have done,' and the frequent exhortations in the 
Epistles to love, and forgive, and forbear, even as 
Christ did, lead first to a comparison of the actual life 
of Christians with His, and to the unfolding and 
setting up of that only rule and standard of conduct 
which the Saviour's example is meant to supply. The 
need will be awakened of taking time and looking 
distinctly at each of the traits of that wonderful 
Portrait, so that some clear and exact impressions be 
obtained from it of what God actually would have us 
be. Believers must be brought to feel that the life 
of Christ is in very deed the law of their life, and 
that complete conformity to His example is what God 
expects of them. There may be a difference in 
measure between the sun shining in the heavens and 
a lamp lighting our home here on earth; still the 
light is the same in its nature, and in its little sphere 
the lamp may be doing its work as beautifully as the 
sun itself. The conscience of the Church must be 
educated to understand that the humility and self- 
denial of Jesus, His entire devotion to His Father's 
work and will, His ready obedience. His self-sacri- 
ficing love and kindly beneficence, are nothing more 
than what each believer is to consider it his simple 
duty as well as his privilege to exhibit too. There is • 
not, as so many think, one standard for Christ and an- 
other for His people. No; as branches of the vine, 
as members of the body, as partakers of the same 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 275 

spirit, we may and therefore must bear the image 
of the Elder Brother. 

The great reason why this conformity to Jesus is 
so little seen, and in fact so little sought after among 
a large majority of Christians, is undoubtedly to be 
found in erroneous views as to our impotence, and 
what we may expect Divine grace to work in us. 
Men have such strong faith in the power of sin, and 
so little faith in the power of grace, that they at once 
dismiss the thought of our being expected to be just 
as loving, and just as forgiving, and just as devoted 
to the Father's glory as Jesus, was, as an ideal far 
beyond our reach; beautiful indeed, but never to be 
realized. God cannot expect us to be or do what 
is so entirely beyond our power. They confidently 
point to their own failure in earnest attempts to 
curb temper and to live wholly for God, as the proof 
that the thing cannot be. 

It is only by the persistent preaching of Christ our 
Example, in all the fulness and glory of this blessed 
truth, that such unbelief can be overcome. Be- 
lievers must be taught that God does not reap where 
He has not sown, that the fruit and the root are in 
perfect harmony. God expects us to strive to speak 
and think and act exactly like Christ, because the 
life that is in us is exactly the same as that ivhich was 
171 Him. We have a life like His within us; what 
more natural than that the outward life should be 



276 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

like His too? Christ living in us is the root and 
strength of Christ's acting and speaking through us, 
shining out from us so as to be seen by the world. 

It is specially the preaching of Christ our Example, 
to he received by faith alone^ that will be needed to 
lead God's people on to what their Lord would have 
them be. The prevailing idea is that we have to 
believe in Jesus as our Atonement and our Saviour, 
and then, under the influence of the strong motives 
of gratitude and consistency, to strive to imitate His 
example. But motives cannot supply the strength; 
the sense of impotence remains; we are brought 
again under the law : we ought to, but cannot. The 
soul must be taught what it means to believe in Christ 
their Exa7yiple» That is, to claim by faith His Ex- 
ample, His Holy Life, as part of the salvation He 
has prepared for them. They must be taught to 
believe that this Example is not a something, not 
even a some one outside of them, but the living Lord 
Himself, the very Life, who will work in them what 
He first gave them to see in His earthly life. They 
must learn to believe that if they will submit them- 
selves to Him, He will manifest Himself in them and 
their life-walk in a way passing all their thoughts; 
to believe that the Example of Jesus and the conform- 
ity to Him is a part of that Eternal Life which came 
down from heaven, and is freely given to every one 
that lelieveth. It is because we are one with Christ, 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 277 

and abide in Him, because we have in us the same 
Divine life He had, that we are expected to walk like 
Him. 

The full insight into this truth, and the final ac- 
ceptance of it, is no easy matter. Christians have 
become so accustomed to a life of continual stumbling 
and unfaithfulness, that the very thought of their be- 
ing able with at least such a measure of resemblance as 
the world must recognise, to show forth the likeness 
of Christ, has become strange to them. The preach- 
ing that will conquer their unbelief, and lead God's 
people to victory, must be animated by a joyous and 
triumphant faith. For it is only to faith, a faith 
larger and deeper than Christians ordinarily think 
needful for salvation, that the power of Christ's 
example taking possession of the whole life will be 
given. But when Christ in His fulness, Christ as 
the Law and the Life of the believer, is preached, 
this deeper faith, penetrating to the very root of our 
oneness of life with Him, will come, and with it the 
power to manifest that life. 

The growth of thij faith may in different cases 
vary much. To some it may come in the course of 
quiet persevering waiting upon God. To others it 
may come as a sudden revelation, after seasons of 
effort, of struggling and failure; just one full sight 
of what Jesus as the Example really is, Himself beiuff 
and giving all Ke claims. To some it may come ia 



278 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 

solitude — where there is none to help but the living 
<jod Himself alone. To others it will be given, as 
it has been so often, in the communion of the saints, 
ivhere amid the enthusiasm and love which the fellow- 
ship of the Spirit creates, hearts are melted, decision 
is strengthened, and faith is stirred to grasp what 
Jesus offers when He reveals and gives Himself to 
make us like Himself. But, in whatever way it 
•come, it will come when Christ in the power of the 
Holy Spirit is preached as God's revelation of what 
His children are to be. And believers will be led, 
in the deep consciousness of utter sinfulness and im- 
potence, to yield themselves and their life as never 
l)efore into the hands of an Almighty Saviour, and 
to realize in their experience the beautiful harmony 
between the apparently contradictory words : 'In me, 
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing;' and, 
*I can do all things through Christ, who strength- 
-eneth me. ' 

But root and fruit are ever connected by a stem, 
with its branches and leaves. In the life of Christ 
this was so too. The connection between His hidden 
life rooted in God, and that life manifesting itself in 
the fruit of holy words and works, was maintained 
l3y His life of conscious and continual personal fel- 
lowship with the Father. In His waiting on the 
Pather, to see and hear what He had to make known, 
in yielding Himself to the leadings of the Spirit, in 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE. 279 

His submission to the teachings of the Word which 
He came to fulfil, in His watching unto prayer, and 
in His whole life of independence and faith, Christ 
became our Example. He had so truly been made 
like unto us in all things, become one with us in the 
weakness of the flesh, that it was only thus that the 
life of the Father could be kept flowing freely into 
Him and manifesting itself in the works He did. 
And just so it will be with us. Our union to Jesus, 
and His life in us, will most certainly secure a life 
like His. This not, however, in the way of an 
absolute necessity, as a blind force in nature works 
out its end; but in the way of an intelligent, 
willing, loving co-operation — a continual coming and 
receiving from Him in the surrender of faith and 
prayer, a continual appropriating and exercising of 
what we receive in watchful obedience and earnest 
effort, a continual working because we know He 
works in us. The faith in the vitality and the 
energy of the life in which we are eternally rooted 
will not lead to sloth or carelessness, but, as with 
Christ, rouse our energies to their highest power. It 
is the faith in the glorious possibilities that open up 
to us in Christ our life, that will lead to the culti- 
vation of all that constitutes true personal fellowship 
and waiting upon God. 

It is in these three points of similarity that the 
Christlike life must be known ; our life like Christ's 



280 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, 

hidden in God^ maintained like His in fellowship with 
God^ will in its external manifestation be like His 
too, a life /or God. As believers rise to apprehend 
the trnth, we are indeed like Christ in the life we 
have in God through Him ; we can be like Christ in 
the keeping up and strengthening of th^t life in 
fellowship with God; we shall be like Christ in the 
fruits which such a life must bear; the name of fol- 
lowers of Christ, the imitation of Christ, will not be 
a profession but a reality, and the world will know 
that the Father has indeed loved us as He loved the 
Son. 

I venture to suggest to all ministers and Christians 
who may read this, the inquiry whether, in the 
teaching and the thought of the Church, we have 
suJBBciently lifted up Christ as the Divine Model and 
Pattern, in likeness to whom alone we can be restored 
to the Image of God in which we were created. The 
more clearly the teachers of the Church realize the 
eternal ground on which a truth rests, its essential 
importance to other truths for securing their complete 
and healthy development, and the share it has in 
leading into the full enjoyment of that wonderful 
salvation God has prepared for us, the better will they 
be able to guide God's people into the blessed 
possession of that glorious life of high privilege and 
holy practice which will prepare them for becoming 
such a blessing to the world as God meant them to 



ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, 281 

be. It is the one thing that the world needs in these 
latter days — men and women of Christlike lives, who 
prove that they are in the world as He was in the 
world, that the one object of their existence is 
nothing other than Tvhat was Christ's object — the 
glorifying of the Father and the saving of men. 

One word more. Let us above all beware lest in the 
preaching and seeking of Christlikeness that secret 
but deadly selfishness creeps in, which leads men to 
seek it for the sake of getting for themselves as much 
as is to be had, and because they would fain be as 
eminent in grace and as high in the favor of God as 
may be. God is love: the image of God is Godlike 
love. When Jesus said to His disciples: *Be ye 
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,' 
He told them that perfection was loving and blessing 
the unworthy. His very names tell us that all the 
other traits of Christlikeness must be subordinate to 
this one: seeking the will and glory of God in loving 
and saving men. He is Christ the Anointed: the 
Lord hath anointed " Him — for whom? for the 
broken-hearted and the captive; for them that are 
bound and them that mourn. He is Jesus; living 
and dying to save the lost. There may be a great 
deal of Christian work with little of true holiness or 
of the spirit of Christ. But there can be no large 
measure of real Christlike holiness without a distinct 
giving up oneself to make the salvation of sinners 



283 ON PREACHING CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, 

for the glory of God the object of our life. He gave 
Himself for us, that He might claim us for Him- 
self, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Him- 
self FOR us, and us for Himself: an entire 
exchange, a perfect union, a complete identity in 
interest and purpose. Himself for us as Saviour, 
us FOR Himself still as Saviour; like Him and for Him 
to continue on earth the work He began. Whether 
we preach the Christlike life in its deep inner springs, 
where it has its origin in our oneness with Him in 
God, or in its growth and maintenance by a life of 
faith and prayer, of dependence and fellowship with 
the Father, or in its fruits of humility and holiness 
and love, let us ever keep this in the foregrouncj. 
The one chief mark and glory of the Christ is that 
He lived and died and lives again for this one thing 
alone: the will and the glory of the God of 

LOYE IN" THE SALVATION OF SINNERS. And to be 

Christlike means simply this: to seek the life and 
favor and Spirit of God only, that we may be entirely 
given up to the same object*: the will and the 

GLORY OF the GoD OF LOYE IN THE SALVATION OF 

sinners. 



THE END. 



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